So this was one of the five dishes I made for my “Namie” pop-up dinner during the summer for my friends from 4Foodie(special shoutout to Kate and Victoria for the amazing photos from this!). Originally, it was just going to be three dishes, but I extended it to five, and this was a super last-minute(two…
Category: Recipes
Ocean Lily: a plated dish
Out of the five dishes I served at my “Namie” pop-up for 4Foodie, I would say that this one was the one I was most excited about. I never actually tried to do a sashimi dish before, at least without the help of somebody else slicing the fish for me. However, in this case, I…
Uni custard with yuzu buttermilk
I have done chawanmushi before, and this is quite similar to that as well. The idea was to do this baked or steamed uni custard(in an egg shell) with a light buttermilk foam-type of thing, and on top of that, some fresh uni, just to tie it all in together. In the past, I have…
Chilled corn dashi with miso cornbread and Tokyo turnips
Whenever the summer rolls around, cornbread is just one of those things I always love to make! For this recipe, I went the vegan route, and made a cornbread that uses miso paste and a corn dashi, as well as a vegan coconut buttermilk, just to create a super fluffy texture and a moister crumb….
Purple passionfruit mochi truffles
I’ve done mochi truffles in the past, and these were some that I wanted to do, featuring passionfruit! The interior is passionfruit liquid core with a passionfruit mousse, while the exterior is a super soft mochi made with shiratamako, dyed purple naturally using acai powder, just to mimic the color and appearance of a passionfruit….
“Chonky” peach pie
One of my favorite memories growing up was when summer would come around, and the peach tree in our backyard would provide us with white peaches to last an entire summer. I love eating peaches, and while I don’t often bake with them, whenever I do, I love to use them for making pies specifically….
Halva, almond, and apricot tart
So I made this tart because of two reasons: I had a ton of halva in my freezer that I wanted to use in a dessert, and I was seeing my former-pastry chef friend, Janae, and I wanted to make something for her(which ended up being these tarts!). For those unfamiliar with halva, it is…
Peaches and cream soufflé pancakes
These were literally on my list to make for weeks, ever since my mother gifted me with some white peaches to eat/cook with. For me, white peaches symbolize the summer, because we had a peach tree growing up in Torrance in our backyard, and it just made summer a season more to look forward to(besides…
Head in the clouds: a plated dessert
The inspiration for this dessert came from me testing out a couple new techniques – using sago, which are little tapioca pearls, to make a strawberry flavored “caviar”, and using lychee juice to make a foam. I wanted to create this sort of ethereal, sea-meets-sky, summery sort of dessert, embracing fresh lychees, and pairing them…
Brown butter and apple pancakes
These were literally inspired by the Dutch pear pancakes from Prune in New York City. Unlike the Dutch Baby pancakes, which is made from baking a loose batter at a high heat to create a giant fluffy pancake, these are more cake-like, and cooked with large visible slices of fruit in the batter. In the…
Bingsu roll cake
So whenever I would visit Taiwan, one of my absolute favorite things to eat was shaved ice(also called “tsuabing” in Mandarin). Fluffy crystals of ice with all sorts of toppings, but typically, some sort of mochi or sweet potato ball, condensed milk, red beans, strawberries, and if I felt especially fat, pudding. Almost every Asian…
Giant ass (toasted milk and brown butter) cookies
I made these cookies to test primarily one thing, and that was how toasted milk powder would taste in a cookie dough. I stumbled upon the concept of toasted milk powder when I was watching a video about a chocolatier in Miami who incorporated that into her milk chocolate. She claimed that it gave her…
Chocolate checkerboard cake
So I actually made this cake for a co-worker’s birthday – her name is Kristina and she is an incredibly kindhearted person and an extremely hardworking sales manager. During the pandemic, when we were extremely understaffed, Kristina literally held down the fort, despite that meaning she had to work 12 hour days for months. Since…
Scallion and bacon bagel bombs
Bagel bombs are my all-time favorite item from Milkbar. While Milkbar is known for their cakes and cookies and ice cream, I feel like their breads tend to be overlooked, when in reality, they are so delicious. Fluffy buns housing exciting and dynamic fillings, ranging from pizza bombs to scrambled egg to my personal favorite,…
Chinese beef ragout with miso orecchiette
One of the first kinds of pasta I learned how to make from scratch is orecchiette. I love making them because it does not require a pasta roller, which not everyone has. You simply just make a log of dough, then cut it, and press it with your thumbs to form an indent. Super easy-peasy….
Salt and pepper pork chop with egg noodles
I feel like when it comes to savory cooking, I have a tendency to gravitate towards similar components – a seared protein, some sort of vegetable, some sort of starch, and a sauce. This would be no different to that. In fact, it would be 100% that. I wanted to do a lighter take on…
Pink pineapple hummingbird cake
So when I was shopping at HMart the other day, I stumbled upon these pink pineapples. On the outside, they looked like a normal pineapple, but the flesh was 100% pink on the inside! I did a little more research on them, and it turns out that they were genetically modified so that instead of…
Air fried poutine with spicy beef gravy
This is honestly the ugliest thing I have ever made. But that’s what poutine is: fries with gravy and cheese curds. What sets this poutine apart from most is that I went with using my air fryer on to potatoes – this does not make them fully guilt-free, but it does alleviate some of that…
Roast pork belly with pork fat potatoes and vegetable ragout
This dish was basically as close as I could get to a one-pot wonder – had I not needed the pot of water to boil things in, this would have literally been achievable in one pot. We have roasted pork belly with potatoes that are cooked in pork fat, a ragout with peas, shallots, and…
“Husk of the Black Forest”: a plated dessert
So when I was conceptualizing different desserts that would use salted duck egg, one of them that I had in mind was with injeolmi, which is a roasted grain mix from Korea, similar to misugaru, but with a less earthy flavor profile. I was first introduced to injeolmi by my friend, Ann, who ordered it…
Freddy's Harajuku 