Auntie Hong’s Flan

Ingredients:

For custard:

8 egg yolks

4 whole eggs

4 cups of whole milk (not reduced fat)

2 Tbsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup of sugar

For caramel:

6 Tbsp water

1 cup of sugar, for caramel

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 340F (320F and longer recommended with our oven)
2. In a sauce pan, heat the milk, sugar and vanilla extract until the sugar is dissolved. Do NOT bring the mixture to a boil. 
3. Whisk eggs in a bowl. 
4. Slowly pour the heated milk mixture into the egg bowl while slowly mixing/whisking. The milk should be warm (not hot) so as not to cook the eggs. 
5. In a sauce pan, combine water and sugar to make the caramel.  Heat on medium/high heat. DO NOT STIR otherwise sugars will crystallize and clump. 
6. When the sugar mixture becomes caramel, quickly pour into baking dish or ramekins to line the bottom. 
7. Pour custard mixture into baking dish or ramekins. Pour into a strainer to remove lumps if you like to ensure a very smooth flan. 
8. Place baking dish or ramekins into a water bath. 
9. Bake 40 mins for ramekins 55 mins for larger baking dish until toothpick comes out clean.  

Tips:

*Cut recipe in half and bake for a shorter time yields 6 ramekins. 

*Dont mix too hard. This adds air bubbles and causes a Swiss cheese technique. 

2025 New Zucchini Mushroom Stuffing

Ingredients:

• 2 zucchinis, cut into 1/2 inch half circles
• 2 cups of baby bella, sliced
• 1/2 cup of chopped celery
• 1/2 cup of chopped onion
• 1/2 cup of chopped carrot 
• 1 can of unsalted cream of mushroom
• 1 stick of butter
• Stovetop stuffing
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. 
2. Boil zucchini until tender, 5 minutes. 
3. Mix cooked zucchini with cream of mushroom and set aside. 
4. Heat up a little bit of olive oil to a pan and sautéed onions, celery and carrots on medium heat until soft. 
5. Add mushrooms and cook until soft. 
6. Add butter and cook until melted. 
7. Add box of stovetop stuffing and stir to combine. 
8. In a 8x8 pan, layer half stuffing mixture at the bottom, then spread zucchini in the middle, and top with remaining stuffing mixture. 
9. Bake in oven for 30 minutes. 

T’s Pate So

 Ingredients:

1 lbs. pork shoulder

1 medium shallot, minced

1 cup chopped onions

1 tsp chicken boullion

2 tsp freshly ground pepper

1 tsp light brown sugar

2 tsp oyster sauce (I like Lee Kum Kee's sold at Costco)

1 tsp corn starch

2 tbs unsalted sweet cream butter plus extra to coat parchment paper before placing pastries on for baking

15 grams leverpastei (used Unox)

2 medium carrots; julienned

1/2 cup of rehydrated woodear mushroom; coarsely minced

1/8 cup chives; minced

4 each 10" x 15" sheets all butter puff pastry

14 quail eggs; beaten

a. Thaw puff pastry sheet for 2-3 hours or per packging instructions

b.Grind pork shoulder in food processor

c.  Add chicken boullion, light brown sugar, pepper, oyster sauce corn starch and unsalted sweet cream.  Mix to incorporated well.

d. Brown shallots and onions over medium heat. 

d. Add woodear mushrooms, carrots, chives, shallots,o nions and leverpastei to meat mixture. Mix to incorporated well.

e. Pre-heat oven to 350F.

f. Cut each thawed puff pastry sheet to 24 squares = 12 pastries per sheet...because I like smaller size pastries, bigger if you like larger pastries)

g. Using a disher or portion scoop place small meat ball in center of puff pastry square. Then top with second pastry square.

h. Using a fork crimp pastry square completely around meatball.

i. Beat quail eggs and brush egg wash over each patry

j. Bake at 30 min. at 350F.

k. Cool slightly to serve warm

YJ’s Mochi Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 pound mochiko (glutinous rice flour)
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• ½ cup butter, melted
• 3 cups whole milk (1 can of coconut milk and the rest milk to reach 3 cups)
• 5 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup sweetened, flaked coconut

Directions

1. Gather ingredients. Preheat the oven to  350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
   
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla and milk. In a separate larger bowl, stir together the rice flour, sugar, and baking powder.
   
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir to blend. (The more you mixed the more air you put into the batter making it lighter and fluffier - it’s all personal preference). Mix in melted butter and coconut. Pour into the prepared cupcake pan.
   
4. Bake for 45-50 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool completely, then cut into squares to serve.
   

Brooke's Matcha Cookies

Brooke is almost famous in the neighborhood for these cookies. Make sure we use 100% matcha powder, ceremonial or culinary grade for a strong match taste and green color. The key to her cookies is weighing out the ingredients instead of using cups - especially the flour. There is no need to chill this dough before baking but if it's too sticky it won't hurt to chill for 30 minutes before scooping. 

INGREDIENTS

• 180 g all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon matcha powder, ceremonial grade or high-quality culinary grade
• 1 tablespoon milk powder, optional
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 115 g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 150 g granulated sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped, plus a handful extra for topping
• flakey salt, optional

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Mix dry ingredients - in a small bowl, combine flour, matcha powder, milk powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl (stand mixer bowl if using a stand mixer), cream butter and sugar. Mix until very creamy and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add in eggs and vanilla. Mix until smooth.
5. Add dry ingredients to wet - Mix briefly until just combined with some flour patches left.
6. Fold in white chocolate chips with a silicone spatula - do NOT overmix.
7. Using a 2-tbsp scooper, scoop out balls of cookie dough and place them on your baking sheet, leave 2 inches in between for spreading.
8. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the edges are set but the middle is still soft and puffy. In the last 2 minutes of baking, press a few extra white chocolate chunks on top of each cookie (optional)
9. Let the cookies cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before carefully transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. At this point, you can sprinkle some flakey salt to add a delightful saltiness to the cookies.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Chewy chocolate chip (or chunk) cookies with a crispy, delicious edge. Melted butter recipe so no chill time is required. 

Made these for the neighbor friends and they love them.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/3 (170g) cup of flour 
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted & cooled
• 1/2 cup (100g) light brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup (70g) granulated white sugar 
• 2 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 large egg, room temperature 
• 1 1/2 cup (250g) semisweet chocolate chip or chunks 
• (optional) replace 75g of chocolate chips with chopped walnuts 
• flakey salt, to finish 

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350F and line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
2. Melt butter and set aside to cool. 
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. 
4. In a large bowl (stand mixer bowl if using a stand mixer) cream together butter, and both sugars. It's important that the butter is not hot - warm is ok. Whisk vigorously until it turns into a paste-like consistency. 
5. Whisk in egg and vanilla until smooth. 
6. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet and fold until there's still some streaks of flour left. Fold in chocolate chips/chunks (and optional walnuts if using) until just combined. 
7. Use a 2 tablespoon scooper and scoop onto prepared baking sheets. 6 scoops is good as they spread. Bake for 10-12 minutes. 
8. Cookies are ready when edges are golden but middle is still soft and puffed up. 
9. Immediately after taking the cookies out, use a fork or large round cookie cutter to reshape. Sprinkle sea salt. 
10. Let cookies continue to cook for 3-5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before packaging if giving cookies away. 

(In the photo I am using Guittard super chocolate chips. They taste good but look funny. I might prefer their semi-sweet. Trader Joe's semi sweet chocolate chips are good too.)

Notes: we used our smallest scooper and was able to get 22 3 inch cookies from 1 batch.