Fun With Food

Scallops are beautiful pearly white--- a perfect canvas to absorb color. I vacuum-sealed jumbo scallops in beet puree and aromatics for 24 hours before searing both sides in brown butter. The Scallops turned a bright orange on each side and kept their beautiful pink center. To complement the salinity and celebrate the early winter season, I paired them with a citrus-pomegranate salad with fresh, shaved fennel.

I'm not sure where I had the idea for PopTart cookies, I think it just came to me. I followed the best shortbread cookie recipe I knew and rolled the dough out as thin as possible. To keep the guava filling from spilling out, I created a pocket with a spoon on the top and bottom layers before sandwiching them and using a fork to crimp the edges. I made a typical vanilla icing, adding a little bit of milk powder and corn syrup to get that signature crackly icing.

I was in a cinnamon roll phase when I first started baking. I was obsessed with combining different desserts with cinnamon rolls. I made a classic cinnamon roll dough before I cooked very thin apple slices in chai. Slice by slice, I layered them on top of the brown sugar filling before rolling. I put classic, homemade streusel on top of the rolls before baking. This resulted in silky apples embedded in the layers of the soft roll, perfectly complemented by the spiced streusel.

Everybody Loves chocolate covered strawberries. They're the empitome of romace. I asked myself: "How I could turn the valentine's day dessert into a Valentine's day DINNER?" First added Abuelita's hot cocoa powder to my steak seasoning and cold smoked it with cherrywood before searing it.

I deglazed the pan drippings with Jack Daniel's bourbon before adding shallots, garlic, rosemary, thyme, and beef broth. I reduced it by half and finished it with a few chunks of 72% dark chocolate and strained out the solids. This was the sauce to go under the steak

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For the strawberry component, I made a strawberry-port wine reduction and used it to drizzle around the plate.

This was a complete improvisation. I didn't know what appetizer to make, and was making it up on the fly. I looked around and chose to use jalapeños to narrow down my options- I decided to make jalapeno poppers because they're familiar- but I knew I wanted to elevate them. I tossed them in oil and seasoning before grilling them to release some sweetness. Instead of a typical cream cheese filling, I combined it with goat cheese, sour cream, and various herbs and spices. I added lemon zest and a splash of white wine to add to the brightness. After filling the jalapenos, I torched the tops and garnished them with fried prosciutto, more herbs, smoked olive oil, and smoked sea salt.

I got the inspiration for this after I saw someone cure salmon with green tea. I used a 1:1 ratio of brown sugar and salt before adding black tea and masala chai spices. I paired it with sweet pickled apples, goat cheese spread, and sweet potato chips