in the kitchen x salted caramel, seckel pear, and milk ice cream

The second of my milk & pear pairing is this comforting dessert. With the cold weather, and post-holiday blues, nothing brings the warmth like familiar food that's full of buttery goodness. That was my inspiration for this dessert, especially the hazelnut brown butter cake. I love hazelnut cake in general, but amped up with brown butter, it's rich and divine. When paired with salted caramel, the cake is given a new dimension with the added sugar and salt. Add pears (poached in honey for a buttery finish), creamy milk ice cream, and crunchy caramelized hazelnuts, and this dessert is perfect for the cold days of January. 

in the kitchen x faux cheese course

This is not your typical cheese course. First of all, there is no cheese. Second, there's just no cheese. What is on the plate is a play on cheese. Plated is a poached seckel pear, milk skin, olive oil, maldon salt, cracked black pepper, and pea shoots. The seckel pears are poached in honey and cardamom. I love poaching pears in honey because it gives it a rich and buttery taste without compromising the actual fruit. Cardamom is a deliciously fragrant and warm spice that I love to infuse to cooked fruit. It gives a a sense of familiarity without overwhelming the senses. The milk skin is just that, milk skin. It's the skin that develops in heated milk. I love that it has a delicate mouthfeel and is reminiscent of mozzarella, especially when topped with good olive oil, salt, and pepper. The pea shoots add a vegetal freshness. When I first tasted all the components together, I was so excited. It tasted better than what I had envisioned. In the kitchen, trial and error is part of developing any dish, but when something comes out delicious on the first try, it's just icing on the cake.