Spinach, with Ginger Confit

I been meaning to try this for some time, and today, finally, my craving for new taste over took my laziness. I got the recipe for ginger confit, from Kunz & Kaminsky whose book I can not praise enough –
but before we get there, its worth noting that there are two kinds of confit, meat ones, like duck confit, where the preservative is basically fat, and fruit ones, where its sugar. A ginger confit, uses the fruit techniques – you add honey, lime juice, lime rind, spices, chillie and vermouth to the julienned ginger and you thicken this, on a low simmer, until its really thick and treacle like. It was a tiny bit tricky, but I added a little more honey than they said one should and then a little arrack at the end, and it went on a while -- You’ve got be careful not to burn this, of course.:) -- and then it was fine.

The spinach I kept simple, just blanched in boiling water and few pieces of rock salt for less than a minute, and yes, it was marvelous with the confit.

The ginger confit has a unique taste, it doesn’t come out sweet, it’s a hot, bitter thing, with hints of sweetness, and what K&K call florals – its basically the lemon rind, the explosive taste of ginger, and of course, the dried chillie, which I added more of than they did, bound with thickened honey.
Wrapped in soft green spinach leaves, it left a taste so complex and original in my mouth, that it changed my whole day.