Hey! It’s been a while since I’ve pop up here. I took some time away from this blog to explore building a newsletter, generally getting myself organized with cookbook #2 coming out later this year, working on proposals for cookbook #3 &#4, and still trying to live life like a normal human. The last few months I felt quite scattered brained to say the least. I struggled with finding a direction or distinction between what I should share here, in my books, and in my newsletter because ultimately I have a lot of different culinary interests and want to share all of them with you witho ..read more

Happy Dim Sumday! I’m currently in Mendocino, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t have a single cheung fun or crystal dumpling in sight. But it sure is pretty here though! I’m happy to say that I’m bringing Dim Sumdays back with these Shrimp and Chive Crystal Dumplings. Just like going out for dim sum, sharing these recipes is a really wonderful ritual and I love having my freezer stocked with lo mai fan and dumplings for an impromptu dim sum feast at home. These Shrimp and Chive Crystal Dumplings are very similar to Har Gow (shrimp crystal dumplings), which may be the most iconic dim sum dumpling ..read more

When I treat myself to a commercial coffee (a non-housemade coffee aka residential coffee) I’m always scouring the bakery case for a baked treat too. My eyes scan the display in hopes of finding a savory scone that doesn’t look dry and sad. I can’t explain why I have this gravitational pull towards them. I’ve been noticing lately that my morning sweet tooth is nearly nonexistent and I crave something salty and especially spicy. Dare I say that I might even prefer a scone over a biscuit? Scones are slightly less buttery with a denser crumb thanks to cream and egg. They are still flaky but it’s ..read more

Are these Caramel Almond Mooncakes traditional? Definitely not. They are a little sweeter, decadent, and unlike a normal Cantonese baked mooncake, I highly recommend you eat them warm. But what really is a mooncake? In the most simplified form it’s a Chinese pastry with a sweet or savory filling blanketed with a “crust" of some sort. Every Mid-Autumn festival I’m inspired but all mooncake tins filled with new flavors and beautiful designs, then I head back into my kitchen and see what I can whip up this year. To be honest, I didn’t grow up making mooncakes. It was more of a tradition to buy m ..read more

You know how I mentioned my afternoon mooncake ice cream sandwich break has been the highlight of my day? Well, the week prior, cutting up a mint chocolate snowskin mooncake into little petals with my afternoon tea was it for me. These fudgy and chewy mooncakes are “too good” as my husband put it. I will probably make these again in the spring when Shamrock Shakes are back in season. If you’ve never had a snowskin mooncake before, they are the unbaked and more mochi-like cousin of the classic baked mooncake. The dough or the crust is made from glutinous rice flour and is cooked in a pan rathe ..read more

Welcome to mooncake week! Mid-autumn festival is next Friday, which gives us a little less than 2 weeks to start salting egg yolks, dusting off our mooncake molds, and working on our mooncakes. It’s plenty of time honestly. I’m sharing a new mooncake recipe each day this week so you can pick and choose which one sounds most exciting to try out by next weekend! I could not wait any longer to share this very nontraditional mooncake. Behold the Mooncake Ice Cream Sandwich! It’s perfect for the end of summer (it’s still quite warm in my corner of the world) and channels all the memorable moments ..read more

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about salted egg yolk french toast since I got back from Hong Kong. So last week when I found myself with some stale sourdough and a jar of leftover salted egg yolks from making Joong, I knew it was time to recreate it! In Hong Kong the french toast is normally made with milk bread, stuffed with a salted egg yolk molten lava cake like filling, and deep fried… so this is not exactly the same thing. But you gotta use what you got and I have no time to engineer the lava filling right now (manuscript deadline looming!). So here’s a more casual salted egg yolk ..read more

I am deep in manuscript writing these days, but I still wanted to share a last minute contender for your July 4th celebrations! This Strawberry Basil Galette is the dreamiest summer dessert! I had a ton of strawberries that need to be used up and this was the perfect vehicle for them. They are tossed with some sugar and basil and left to get nice and syrupy. Then my favorite all-purpose pie dough holds everything snuggly together as it bakes in the oven. A warm slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and olive oil is so chic and an effortless way to make this dessert just a touch fancier. Str ..read more

Nori Gravlax Serves 4 to 6 3 nori sheets 1/3 cup coarse salt 1/3 cup sugar 2 tsp cracked black pepper 2 lbs Bristol Bay Wild Sockeye Salmon Lightly toast the nori sheets over a burner, a few passes for each sheet. Rip the sheets into small sections. Place the nori and salt in a food processor and blend until the nori is very fine. In a medium bowl, mix to combine nori salt, sugar, and black pepper. Pat the salmon dry with paper towels, remove any bones, and cut in half. Sprinkle about a quarter of the nori salt over a center section of a rimmed baking sheet (a little bigger than the piece ..read more

Every few months I get a craving for the distinctive chew, yet crispy texture of a freshly baked mochi muffin. I’ve made many a mochi muffin (or cake) in the last few years. Black Sesame Mochi Muffins, Pumpkin Mochi Muffins, and this Lemom Rhubarb Mochi Cake are some of my favorites. Back in the day, when I was hosting monthly dumpling workshops in San Francisco, I baked up a fresh batch of mochi muffins to bring to class because despite the fact that I’m showing up to share invaluable dumpling knowledge, I still didn’t want to show up empty handed. Mochi muffins always seemed like a safe bet ..read more