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Sour Cream and Onion Pasta

September 5, 2025 • 28 comments • Posted in: chip flavors, chips, pasta, penne, quarantine cooking, sour cream, sour cream and onion

Sour cream and onion is a perfect combination for more than just chips, it works on pasta too.

Sour cream and onion

Do you have a favorite chip flavor? When I was a kid my absolute favorite was sour cream and onion. Weird, I know. Everyone else around me was obsessed with barbecue or Doritos but for me it was sour cream and onion all the way. Funny thing is, I haven’t had a sour cream and onion chip in a while. That is, until Mike and I were watching this YouTube show that we love. They did a giant snack bracket competition and the winning snack was sour cream and onion chips! We had a little conversation about it and somehow Mike came up with the awesome idea of sour cream and onion pasta. What’s funny is that Mike doesn’t even like sour cream and onion. He’s never bought a bag and the most he’s ever had is a chip or two. He’s definitely missing out because sour cream and onion is a perfect combination. After trying this pasta he’s a convert!

What is sour cream and onion pasta?

Essentially I took all the flavors of sour cream and onion chips and put it into a pasta sauce. Sour cream and onion flavor is literally sour cream and onions so I basically made a bechamel (white sauce) with sour cream and chives stirred in. I had a little mental debate on whether the “onion” in sour cream and onion were onions, green onions, or chives and ultimately I went with chives because they have a more pronounced onion-y flavor. We tested this pasta with green onions too and it tastes just as good but I love the way chives look because they look like baby green onions.

How to make sour cream and onion pasta

1. Cook your pasta. Cook your favorite pasta shape according to the package in boiling salted water.
2. Make a roux. While your pasta is cooking, make the sour cream and onion sauce by melting some butter in a pan. When the butter is melted, stir in some flour to create a roux (see tips below)
3. Add milk. When the roux is cooked, stir in the milk and let the sauce thicken.
4. Add the sour cream. Take the sauce off the heat and stir in the sour cream.
5. Add the onions. By now your pasta should be done, so drain it and add it to the sauce. Stir in the chives, salt, and pepper, and enjoy!

How to Make a Roux

The key to a really smooth creamy white sauce (béchamel) is making sure that the roux is well mixed and cooked. When you are adding the flour to the just melted butter, sprinkle it on evenly, instead of just dumping it in a clump in the middle of the pan. Sprinkling the flour ensures that all of the flour kernels are coated with butter which helps them emulsify into the sauce smoothly. When the roux is cooked – it will turn a very slight creamy color, be texture of white sand, and smell a little nutty – it will take about 2 minutes. Using a whisk, it really helps move everything around. A well cooked roux will turn into a beautiful creamy white sauce perfect for pairing with pasta.

What to serve with sour cream and onion pasta

To be honest we just ate this as is, as a bowl of creamy comforting carbs. But, if you like, you can serve it with:

• garlic parmesan knots
• focaccia
• everything bagel rolls
• dijon mustard chicken
• garlicky mushrooms
• crunchy oven baked pork cutlets
• grilled romaine salad
• coleslaw

I hope you give this sour cream and onion pasta a try. I LOVED it. It was so creamy and had the exact flavor of sour cream and onion chips. Next we’re gonna try barbecue chips pasta maybe?!? sour cream and onion chips forever, xoxo steph

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The Search for Perfect Purin in Tokyo

September 3, 2025 • 6 comments • Posted in: Japanese, pudding, purin, tokyo, travel guides

Have you ever had Japanese purin? Purin, or pudding, is essentially Japanese crème caramel or flan, made with the same sort of exacting perfection in which Japan treats all culinary deliciousness. You might know it as caramel custard, egg pudding, or caramel pudding, but no matter what you call it, it’s insanely good. Purin is both the most seductive and the most unassuming dessert I know. The top glistens with glossy deep dark caramel that gives way to a impossibly jiggly soft-yet-firm creamy base that just begs to be cut into with a spoon. At the same time, most people tend to pass over purin in favor of fluffy Japanese pancakes, Japanese cheesecake, or taiyaki. Still, something about purin speaks to a deep need in me. I have deep feels for purin. Indulge me, if you will, and read along for my search for the perfect purin in Tokyo.

What is purin?

To talk about purin, we kind of need to go way back to the beginning of how Japan got into yōgashi, or Western style sweets and desserts. Japan’s very first experience with yōgashi happened with the Portuguese in the 16th century. From there, castella sponge cake (kasutera) became incredibly popular. They’re still popular today, being one of the top omiyage (edible souvenirs) from Nagasaki. Once Western-style sweets became popular, vanilla custard based ones became especially so, the most popular being purin, of course. “Purin”, derived from the English “pudding,” was initially a luxury food due to the lack of dairy after World War II. After dairy became more available, purin started showing up everywhere, from ultra luxe purin a la mode at hotels to little plastic cups in combini convenience stores. Those little fluted plastic cups of Pucchin Purin have been around since the early seventies and are to Japan what chocolate Snack Packs are to North Americans.

Purin's cult following

Purin is really popular in Japan. There are purin flavored snacks, chocolates, candies, ice cream, you name it. There’s even a Sanrio character called Pompompurin, a chubby little golden retriever with a caramel beret. Japanese people love purin; so much so that there is even a giant make-it-at-home “king pudding” gelatin pudding mix with pre-made caramel that comes in a bucket that you use as the pudding mold. It makes more purin than you could ever know what to do with and to be honest, I kind of wanted to try it. Purin is definitely one of those beloved nostalgic desserts and lately, purin is becoming even more trendy. Purin kind of has a cult following these days: there are instagrams dedicated to purin, hours long line ups, and premium purins that sell out long before you have even heard of them. Part of the appeal is that purin can be, like many Japanese foods, both high and low end. There are literally dozens of affordable purins you can buy at the grocery store, as well as dedicated high end purin stores. You can even make purin at home. Because purin is something that both children and adults enjoy, I feel like it’s a true part of Japanese culture, much like ramen, sushi, and shokupan. The rich culture behind purin is partially why I set out on a journey to search for the best purin in Tokyo. But also, it was just because I love purin. I can spend hours on the purin hashtag on Instagram, dreaming of eating purin. There’s something about the way it looks, the way it jiggles, and the joy I get when I use one of those fancy paddle-like purin spoons to carve out that first bite that brings me an immeasurable amount of joy.

Our search for the perfect purin

Mike by the way, does not share my purin obsession, but he was more than willing partner in purin. Partly because I think he wanted to make me happy and partly because I think he thought it was so funny that purin turned out to be a lot more complicated than I thought. Anyway, we were lucky enough to spend a large chunk of time in Japan earlier this year before the pandemic hit. We spent our days wandering with plenty of breaks for snacks. It’s my all time favorite way to explore a city and my love for purin was growing as much as I was. I was diving deeper into my obsession daily by feeding my addiction with combini (convenience store) purin, but one day, while we were at a bookstore, I saw the cutest little paperback book. It had rows and rows of stylized illustrated puddings on the cover and I spent 20 minutes flipping through the pages before Mike gently told me that I should buy it instead of creepily drooling at the photos.

My purin bible

The pudding book was perfection: full color, chock-full of pictures, all about the famous puddings of Tokyo. Yes, there are famous puddings in Tokyo. And this book was going to show me all of them. To say I was excited was an understatement. With the help of trusty google translate (thank goodness for that scan and translate feature, shout to the devs at google translate!) I made a little purin map, in hopes that we would wander across one (or seven) purin shops a day. Purin, as I soon discovered, is a competitive sport in Japan. There are rules, times, and lines. Okay, no, there aren’t really that many lines but that’s because the pudding usually sells out before lines can even start to form. I loved eating purin in Tokyo. I highly recommend it, even if you only go to one purin place or just pick up purin from the combini. Purin is part of the Japanese soul and my search for perfect purin was something that brought me joy, deliciousness, and frustration, all in equal parts. Read on for all the purins I tried, as well as ratings on ambience, location, ease, taste, and aesthetics.

Takeaway Purin

Along with all of the cafe purin I had, I also indulged in multiple purin from the combini, supermarkets, and department stores. Most of the time I just got combini purin but I did manage to try one purin from a famous takeaway purin shop!

Purin I did not eat but desperately wanted to

Conure

2025 Update: Conure is permanently closed. こぬれ広尾Conure is a reservations-only sweets shop that has no menu. It has esoteric hours and is out in Hiroo, somewhere where tourists don’t often go. We stopped by to see if we could grab one of their takeout purins – they sell them all day long, until they sell out – but even though we got there before noon the friendly grandma shook her head sadly at me. Their purin is the kind that is sliced, firm and smooth with a side of caramel, whipped cream, and rum raisins. Unfortunately it looks like Conure is one of the casualties of Corona so I guess I will never get to taste their deliciousness.

Feb’s Coffee&Scone

I am obsessed with how Feb’s serves their purin. It looks so retro and cute to me: in a little silver dish with a perfect dollop of whipped cream and a candy red cherry. Mike and I tried going here three times! Once, they were randomly closed, one day we got there only to realize that they only sell their purin on certain days and the final time we tried they were open, but sold out! We got there early-ish, but they start selling their purin at 9am and sell out really early. RIP in peace Feb’s. Maybe I’ll get to try you as take-away one day. This wouldn’t be a complete write up without a shoutout to all the purin that we tried to get and couldn’t because of availability or line-ups. We tried to hit up Are, Kaiso, and Coffeehouse Nishiya. I wonder if they’re any good? Well, if you made this this far, you must be a fellow purin lover?! I hope one day travel will open up to Japan again and you get a chance to eat purin in Tokyo! Once you taste it, you too will be forever changed. Until then, purin and melon soda, and all retro Japanese desserts forever, xoxo steph PS - If you want to make your own purin at home, I have a retro Japanese purin recipe right here! PPS - If you are traveling in Japan with someone who isn’t a huge purin fan, don’t worry, the places that sell purin are usually coffee shops (oddly a lot of curry cafes sell purin too but we didn’t go to any of those) so your other can always just order coffee. They also usually sell beer, so if they’re like Mike, beer is an option too. Purin, coffee, and beer is the perfect break :)

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Extra Creamy Cacio e Pepe Pasta

September 1, 2025 • 8 comments • Posted in: cacio e pepe, garganelli, italian, italian american, pasta, quarantine cooking

Cacio e pepe is classic: peppery cheesy noodle goodness. You don’t mess with classic, am I right? Well, the other day I saw some noodles on insta and I was immediately drawn in. They were super saucy, extra cheesy, and looked so cravable. It was a twist on cacio e pepe - instead of the starchy pasta water, pecorino, pepper, and pasta route, it went for a pecorino mornay sauce flecked with pepper.

The best cacio e pepe

I’m a huge fan of cacio e pepe in all its forms and its simplicity but sometimes we get messages from people who have problems with cheese clumping up or sauce that isn’t as smooth, glossy, or thick as they like. This cacio e pepe-ish pasta is here to save the day. Because the sauce is thickened with flour and thinned out with starchy pasta water, it has more body and clinging power than the classic sauce.

Here’s how to make it

First, start off by melting some butter in a pan with plenty of freshly cracked black pepper. Black pepper is a key flavor in cacio e pepe and toasting it in butter helps coax out it’s spicy floralness. The heat of the butter will draw out flavor and the pepper will infuse the butter with all that goodness.

What is Mornay sauce

Mornay sauce, for the uninitiated, is a classic French sauce built off of béchamel, a flour thickened milk sauce. Traditional mornay is made with gruyère cheese but this one uses pecorino, which is the cheese normally used for cacio e pepe. You can use parmesan if that’s what you have but if you see pecorino at the store, it’s worth a buy. It’s slightly sharper, more intense, and less nutty than parmesan because it’s made with sheep’s milk instead of cow. It really makes cacio e pepe amazing and if you’re looking for the same flavor cacio as the ones you get in an Italian restaurant, the cheese is the answer.

Thicken the sauce

Next, it’s time to add our thickening agent, flour. Stir the flour in completely making sure there are no lumps. At this point, our goal is to coat eat flour granule with fat so that the flour easily combines with the milk to create a smooth sauce.

Lump-free cacio e pepe

It's time to gradually add the milk. Adding it in slowly will help prevent lumps. Don’t worry if the sauce clumps up right away, just keep whisking over low heat.

Glorious glorious cheese

Take the sauce off the heat and add the cheese in batches. The residual heat of the sauce will melt the cheese. The sauce will probably look kind of lumpy. Don’t worry though, we’re going to smooth it out with starchy pasta water. At this point, if you want to cool down the sauce and pop it in the fridge in a container, you can do so. If you do, you can have almost instant pasta any day of the week. When you’re ready to make your pasta, cook the pasta according to the instructions. Heat up the cacio sauce over medium heat, and whisk in some hot starchy pasta water until the sauce thins out slightly. Add the pasta and toss, adding extra pasta water if sauce is too thick. Finish everything off with extra cheese and pepper and enjoy!

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Pumpkin Cream Cold Foam Recipe (Starbucks Cold Brew Copycat)

August 30, 2025 • 18 comments • Posted in: coffee, pumpkin, pumpkin spice

I am obsessed with pumpkin cream cold foam and this starbucks copycat recipe lets me have it at home. It’s so good, I feel like I could drink a glass of it and be happy. That might be a bit excessive though? Also excessive is my desire to grab a pumpkin cream cold foam anytime I see a Starbucks. Since Starbucks prices have gone through the roof, I’ve started making pumpkin cream cold foam at home and it definitely satisfies the itch. This pumpkin cold foam tastes amazing on cold brew but I also like the velvety way it flows into hot coffee too. So good!

What is cold foam?

Cold foam (at least according to Starbucks) is whipped non-fat milk that floats on top of cold coffee. They use their special blenders to whip up the milk so it has micro bubbles which gives it a velvety, creamy texture. If you get a flavored cold foam (sweet cream cold foam, pumpkin cold foam, salted caramel cream), it’s not just milk though, it’s a mix of non-fat milk, heavy cream, and syrup.

What is pumpkin cream cold foam?

Pumpkin cream cold foam is a mix of sweetened heavy cream with vanilla syrup and pumpkin sauce frothed together so it becomes velvety and thick but pourable. It’s nothing like the consistency of whipped cream, more of a thick, melted ice cream texture. If you live for pumpkin spice season, pumpkin cream cold foam is going to be your jam.

Why cold foam?

Personally, I love the way the cold foam floats on top of the coffee and slowly, slowly cascades down into the rest of the drink. When you take that first sip, you mostly get the velvety sweetness of the cold foam with the contrast of the unsweetened coffee pulling through. There’s something extra rich and creamy about cold foam. I think it’s the tiny bubbles that make the drink so decadent.

Two different ways to make pumpkin cold foam

I’ve outlined two different ways to make pumpkin cold foam: an easy way and a little bit more advanced way. The easy way is to just foam up the ingredients. The advanced way takes a bit longer but is well worth it. Starbucks uses vanilla sweet cream and their proprietary pumpkin sauce to make their cold foam so I decided to reverse engineer it a bit to see how close I could come. Now that I’ve tasted both the easy way and the advanced way, I can honestly say that the advanced method is far superior. It tastes a lot closer. But, if you’re in a hurry, the easy way is a quick way to get your fix.

How to make cold foam: the easy way

1. Mix. To a glass measuring cup or tall glass, add heavy cream, milk, pumpkin purée, vanilla syrup, and pumpkin pie spice.
2. Froth. Use a milk frother to whip everything up until it is thick and creamy.
3. Pour. Add cold brew to a tall glass with ice and slowly pour the pumpkin cream on top. Dust on some extra pumpkin spice using a sieve for a pretty top.
4. Enjoy. Sip slowly and enjoy the fall feels.

How to make cold foam: the advanced way

1. Make vanilla sweet cream. Mix together 2 cups heavy whipping cream, 1 1/4 cups milk, and 3/4 cups vanilla syrup. Store in the fridge to keep it very cold.
2. Make pumpkin sauce. In a pot, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup water, 2/3 cups pumpkin purée, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 tsp pumpkin spice, and 1/4 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer while stirring, making sure the pumpkin spice is evenly mixed in and the sugar dissolves. Pour into a container and let cool completely.
3. Make the cold foam. In a glass measuring cup or tall glass, add a scant 1/2 cup of the cold vanilla sweet cream. Add 2 tbsp of the cold pumpkin sauce. Froth until thick and creamy. This should be enough for 2 drinks or one extra decadent one.

The best frother for cold foam

I like using a hand milk frother because you can whip up small amounts. They’re fairly inexpensive and they are great for whipping up small amounts of whipping cream, whisking eggs, and making all kinds of whipped drinks (dalgona, whipped matcha, whipped hot chocolate). I have a frother similar to this one but they don’t sell the exact model I have anymore. You can also use the nespresso milk frother too – it has a special setting for cold. I haven’t tried it, but I’ve heard it works very well.

Pumpkin cream cold foam ingredients

• heavy cream - this is the same as whipping cream, it’s what gives the pumpkin foam a thick and velvety texture.
• vanilla syrup - classic coffee vanilla syrup. I always use Torani.
• pumpkin purée - this is the stuff that is sold in cans at the grocery store. I like Libby’s. Get the can that says pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling.
• sugar - add bit of extra sweetness that’s cooked into a simple syrup that’s mixed into the pumpkin sauce
• sweetened condensed milk - this add extra thickness, creaminess, and sweetness to the pumpkin sauce.
• pumpkin spice - pumpkin spice!! You can buy it at the store already mixed up or you can make your own if you have all the spices at home. It’s: 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves. If you make your own you can also adjust the spice ratios to your liking.

What goes well with pumpkin cream

To be honest, pumpkin cream tastes amazing on all drinks and even as a sauce for ice cream or cake. Try it on: iced coffee, cold brew, hot coffee, espresso, lattes, and iced tea. Also, consider it with:

• Pumpkin Bread
• Homemade Spinach Feta Egg Wrap
• Banana Muffins
• And Blueberry Muffins

Enjoy the pumpkin spice life! xoxo steph  

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