finding your bliss x black truffles sundays

With the frigid weather this weekend, all I want to do is curl up on my couch and eat pasta. Since this is a 3 day weekend, I've been feeling extra lazy and relaxed. I've been depending on Seamless quite a bit lately, so I wanted to treat myself to something home made. At home, quick meals rule, I'm always so impatient to eat! For this pasta dish, grated parmesan and a scrambled egg with some pasta water make a quick sauce. A squeeze of lemon, wilted baby spinach, salt, and a lot of cracked black pepper make this a real meal. The finishing touch? Shaved black truffle in extra virgin olive oil.  A bowl of this on the couch, a Golden Girls marathon, & wool socks made this my kind of bliss. How do you make Sundays special?

in the kitchen x vacherin mont blanc with a twist

Vacherin mont blanc is a classic dessert of meringue & chestnut cream layers. Topped with some warm poached cherries, it's the perfect winter indulgence. While this dessert is great on it's own, I wanted to add my own twist to this classic. Why not duck? Chestnut and cherries go perfectly with duck. I added crispy duck skin as a garnish that would change the dimension of the dish, with the vacherin still the main focus. This dessert is comprised of meringue shards, chestnut cream, cherries poached in spiced wine, and crispy duck skin that was glazed in passion fruit. This is a light and creamy dessert, with cherries that are sweet & spiced. The glazed duck skin acts like bacon on top, with an acidic touch. An unassuming dessert, with a twist.

in the kitchen x duck, orange, & rice dessert

I'd never thought I would write duck, orange, & rice as a dessert title. Then again, I never thought I would make roasted duck as an ice cream flavor. The other night, my boyfriend and I, craving peking duck, headed to Chinatown to settle our cravings. Eating the duck was my inspiration. This dish is roasted duck ice cream, orange cake, puffed rice chips, mascarpone brown sugar, and micro greens. I love making ice cream, so I was really set on making a roasted duck ice cream. I roasted a whole duck, removed the skin, and infused the entire duck overnight in milk and cream. After straining the duck out, I added spices and duck fat to round out the flavor. I wanted to use citrus for acidity to balance out the richness of the duck, hence the orange cake. Adding zest, juice, and segments to the batter really adds the acidity needed to counteract the ice cream. Puffed rice chips are nutty and add a crunchy element to the dish. Be warned that they are addictive to munch on throughout the day! The sauce holds it all together with extra sweetness. I have to say, I was really nervous about making a savory dessert. The entire time I was working on this dish, people kept coming up to me to ask how it was turning out. No one really knows what to expect out of a poultry ice cream. But I have to say, I am happy with how it turned out. Stay tuned for the second duck inspired dessert!

finding your bliss x everything but the kitchen sink ramen

Since I work in a professional kitchen, most people assume that I am an amazing cook at home. Not...exactly. I love pastry and making desserts, but it's different when it's your profession. Not to mention, savory food is a completely different mindset. At work I'm all about precision, consistency, and volume. I use my arsenal of tested recipes and techniques to ensure that every guests gets exactly what they want. But at home, anything goes. I don't follow recipes and I cook on a whim. There's something very satisfying when you're cooking for yourself. That gets lost sometimes at work, cooking is part of the hospitality business, its all about the guests. Honestly, most of the time I'm too tired to cook an entire meal after I get home

. And that's when ramen comes into play. I love packaged noodles. I grew up on them. There's just something so comforting to me about the chewy noodles, salty and spicy broth, and the fact that it cooks in 5 minutes in one pot. When I come home after a long day, it's Shin Ramyun noodles with all the leftovers I can fit in the bowl. This is an example of one of my leftover ramen dishes. I always have kimchi at home (perks of dating a Korean who's mother makes amazing homemade kimchi), so that is thrown in. Tofu, check. I always have some type of leftover protein, whether it's korean bbq, steak, chicken, seafood, that gets thrown in. Of course you have to have vegetables, so thats where the pea shoots come in. All that gets topped with some chopped green onion. My other ramen add-in favorites include an egg, avocado, melted american cheese, bok choy, baby spinach, and seaweed. Honestly, anything works. It's whatever you want to eat. That's the best part. A bowl of this, on the couch, watching my favorite show (currently, Scandal) and it is bliss.  

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.