in the kitchen x grapefruit, green tea, yogurt

in

Now that we're nearing the end of winter, brainstorming for Spring desserts have become my biggest priority. When thinking of a new seasonal menu, I never think of flavors together, but rather ways in which to highlight an ingredient. My idea was to play around with citrus, a bridge between winter and spring. What better way than to make a fruit curd. Popular curd flavors include lemon, lime, and orange. My favorite flavor of curd happens to be grapefruit. I love how the bitter grapefruit is tamed with the addition of eggs, sugar, and butter. The biggest surprise of this dessert happens to be the crumble. It is a basic green tea crumble, but it's the flavors that are added after that makes it come alive. This entire dessert brings about flavors and ideas people are familiar with, such as curd or a crumble, but it is the way it has been treated that makes the familiar new. My first attempt at plating. Featuring a green tea crumble, greek yogurt sorbet, and my flexi grapefruit curd.

This one is a keeper! It's a basic crumble with matcha powder. After it is baked and cooled, I add lime zest, lime juice, toasted pistachios, and salt. Tart, sweet, salty, nutty, and bitter.

Mise en place. Grapefruit curd, apricot gel, green tea crumble, and extra matcha powder to dust on top.

The second version with apricot gel.

The final plated version. I admit I had a little too much fun with the grapefruit curd. But I think this highlights the best aspect of the curd in a set form, as oppose to a spreadable mixture.

One last look!

in the kitchen x chocolate, passion fruit, and coconut

in

When you have an abundance of ingredients, it's nice to challenge yourself to create a cohesive dessert from a variety of extra things you have on hand. This dessert consists of components from a couple of different desserts and extra ingredients I had on hand. I had leftover passion fruit semifreddo batter from the baked alaska dessert. Toasted coconut was already on hand. Cocoa nib crumble leftover from a tart. Coconut cupcakes prepared for family meal. Chocolate ice cream for emergency requests. Sometimes these dessert challenges fail, but this time it yielded something delectable. That's the best thing when you set challenges for yourself, your never quite know the outcome.  

Tasty! Passion fruit semifreddo, cocoa nib crumble, chocolate pearls, coconut cake, toasted coconut, and chocolate ice cream. It goes without saying that everything is Valrhona, my go to chocolate in the kitchen.

 

Here are the components on a separate plate. It consists of coconut cake, toasted coconut, chocolate pearls, chocolate cake crumbs, and cocoa nib crumble. I also added the cocoa nib crumble in its original state, a tuile.

The final product yielded a delicious dessert. The passion fruit was a good tart counterpoint to the bitter and rich chocolate flavors. The texture between the smooth semifreddo, the crunchy pearls, the spongy cake and toasted coconut provided for a good contrast. Overall, a delicious balance of flavors and textures.

in the kitchen x winter cheesecake

in

Winter is not a bounty of produce. Luckily, the abundance of citrus available is a chef's dream. Blood orange, bergamot, sour orange, citron, kumquat, clementine, finger limes, meyer lemon, satsuma, grapefruit, pomelo, and the list goes on. The bright pop of citrus needs a rich and luxurious counterpoint, so why not cheesecake? I love a good classic cheesecake with a graham cracker crust, it's a classic for a reason. Three different versions later, I finally had a delicious version. IMG_6559

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