Contest Entry

Today was the deadline for the first recipe contest I've ever entered. The contest is the Chocolate Adventure Contest and required, obviously, chocolate as well as one or more adventuresome ingredients. The co-sponsor of the contest was Scharffen Berger chocolate and required use of their product. The adventure ingredients included such things as sumac, paprika, crystalized ginger, pandan leaves, and more. I chose to go with the rice flour and peanut butter to create my Peanut Butter Filled Chocolate Mochi Cakes.

Unfortunately one of the rules states that the recipe cannot be published until the end of the contest. Judging takes place the latter part of February, so I guess I can't post the recipe until March. But they did say that I could talk about my entry.


I've been playing with rice flour for mochi desserts recently. You might have seen my post last month of pumpkin mochi. But mochi is also done as little cakes, traditionally with a filling of sweet red beans. I had never made the cakes before and decided this might be a good experiment for the contest. So I made a basic mochi cake recipe and just added the chocolate. Then I made a peanut butter filling, comboed the two, and voila.



The first batch I took to work and all my coworkers said they were good as they were. I thought about adding more sugar to the mochi, but really mochi isn't all that sweet. So the only thing I tweaked for the second batch was to use milk instead of water.

The contest has two categories - savory and sweet. The winner for each section gets $10,000. The runner-up gets a Scharffen Berger gift basket. Winning would be nice, but it's my first entry ever, so I can't get my hopes up on the very first try for such a simple recipe.

Wild Ginger - Bellevue, WA

Wild Ginger has been a star Seattle restaurant since the late 90's. My first experience had been when my brother got married. We went to the original location with our extended family for the rehearsal dinner. The next time I went back the restaurant had moved to a larger location with much more upscale design. This time I am at the brand new second location in Bellevue, WA.

My father remembered the rehearsal dinner and requested that we go there for dinner. So it definitely made an impression if he's remembering a meal from ten years ago.

This new location opened in September '09. It looks very similar in design to the downtown Seattle location, including being two-story. There is a large satay bar downstairs and a small private bar area. I thought it was odd that the bar was downstairs, so far from the entrance and tucked away in the back. Bar business is usually so important for sales, so why is it so hidden?

While I was in the restroom I was fascinated by the Dyson Airblade hand dryers in the bathroom. It was the most effective air dryer I've ever used. People generally reach for the paper towels because they hate to wait for the old dryers - rubbing your hands together for 30 seconds to dry. The Airblade 'scrapes' the air down off your hands like the high powered dryers in car washes. Start putting these dryers in restrooms and people will start using them over paper if they are conservation conscious.

But we were here for the food. I apologize for the poor quality pictures taken with my Blackberry.


We started with crab cakes for my nephew, a scallop satay skewer for myself, and dad ordered the Green Papaya Salad - Shredded green papaya tossed with peanuts, fish sauce and herbs in a lemongrass dressing. None of us had had green papaya before and we found this to be crunchy and refreshing. I liked the lemongrass and mint that stood out in the flavoring. The salad was huge and we ended taking half of it home.


We were all sharing our choices family style. I chose the Tuna Manada - Seared ahi tuna cubes in a coconut milk sauce infused with lemongrass. This was the most disappointing of all our dishes. It was on the bland side and seemed to me like they forgot an ingredient to give the extra punch it needed. Even salt would have brought out the flavors in a better way. It was just dull.


Dad's choice was the overall favorite. He chose the Salt and Pepper Prawns - fried prawns tossed in salt, green onions, and red pepper. Now I often eat this dish when we go to work lunches at Sacramento Chinese restaurants. This was the best version of the dish I've ever had. They were generous with the pepper and the prawns were perfectly fried, crispy, without any grease. I noticed that they used red pepper flakes for their pepper while in Sacramento we've always had it done with chopped, fresh jalapenos. Both ways are good, but this won out for the intensity of the pepper.


Paul's favorite is the Hanoi Tuna - Sashimi-grade ahi tuna marinated with shallots, garlic, and turmeric, seared rare and served with almonds, dill and scallion oil. He particularly likes the almond paste that you see underneath the tuna. I enjoyed it as well - but second best to the prawns.

We also had the Chinese green beans and I got their raspberry ginger ale to drink. The menu has two prices for the items - small and large. We got the large sizes of all our entrees and were glad we did. Even if you were eating the dish to yourself, you will probably want the larger portion. Service was attentive and friendly.

I'll probably continue to stop by Wild Ginger each time I visit the Seattle area.

Tandoori Kitchen - Kirkland, WA

We stopped in for a quick lunch at Tandoori Kitchen, just down the street from my brother's place. They had a buffet lunch for $8.99, which is pretty reasonable since the entrees were around $10.99 each. But we didn't want to eat too much since we had big dinner plans.

When I look now on Urbanspoon.com I see a mix of reviews. Some really are bad and others like the place. My overall response to the negative reviews I see is - it's a Pakistani restaurant, not Indian. This explains some of the dishes not being the same preparation as by Indians. It also could explain some of the service issues. After all, Pakistanis are Muslim. That's no excuse for how to treat customers in the U.S., but sometimes it does show an intolerance, impatience, and ignorance by Americans as well. I also always look on the dates of the reviews. Some of them are over two years old. I really take issue with Urbanspoon not having expiration dates on reviews that are posted. Things change, including ownership or chefs, so that old reviews are not pertinent today.

Anyway, we had good service and enjoyed the food. I was particularly excited to have a Pakistani samosa. Indians do them veggie and Pakistanis put in meat. I like the meat version and the one they served here was excellent. I was a very happy camper. The only negative on the samosa was the amount of grease. It did just drip it all over. But hey, sometimes grease is good. Bonus - he didn't charge us for the samosas. I had said how much I enjoyed them and he comp'd them for us.

My dad and I split an order of Chicken Tikka. I was wanting some sauce with it, but it came out as very tender, moist, chicken chunks that were nicely spiced. Although sauceless, I still enjoyed it.

I also tasted a meat dish Paul got from the buffet and enjoyed it too. So I would eat here again and Paul certainly will become a regular. And if you are reading the mixed reviews, I would suggest you try them yourself. After all, the reviews are about 50/50 and so how can you really know which side you will come on?

Mediterranean Kitchen - Kirkland, WA

Growing up in Saudi Arabia our favorite street food was schwarmas. Back in the 70's they would sell from street carts and the lamb would be rotating on giant rotisseries. They would take Arab bread and put in it shredded lettuce, tomato, the sliced meat, a garlicy tzatziki like sauce, and mint leaves. All ARAMCONS grew up with this schwarma memory.

Sad to say, it is VERY difficult to find schwarmas like this any more - even in Arabia. My dad went back to visit last March and he said he couldn't find a lamb one anywhere, they were all being done with chicken. Here in the U.S. it is equally difficult. If you do find schwarma places, they usually use beef. Many will offer lamb as a kebab version. Basically they are cubing and kebabing the lamb instead of shaving it off a rotisserie like we grew up with.


I'm visiting my brother up in the Seattle area and for Christmas Eve we have gone to Mediterranean Kitchen in Kirkland. Apparently there is a full blown restaurant in Bellevue and this is an offshoot diner style. My brother's one warning - they use a lot of garlic.

OK. So my bro is a garlic wimp. My dad and I thought it was great. The best thing, this truly was the closest schwarma to our childhood memories. My only complaint, it could use a more generous serving of meat in the sandwich. (See any in the pic?) I really did feel like I was eating the sandwich of my past. Kudos.

My brother LOVES their baklava as well. It was pretty tasty. The nuts had been ground to a paste for the filling layer. The pastry was nice and flaky without being overly soaked in honey syrup.


Something that attracted my eye on the menu was the Mediterranean fries - french fries covered in feta cheese, garlic, and sumac - and ketchup. I love garlic fries and I like feta too, so it seemed like a good combo to me. It wasn't bad, but not something I would order again. I think in this case I would have liked more garlic and less feta. But it was nice that the feta was nice and melty.

My brother says that if you go to the actual mother restaurant you will smell the garlic as soon as you open the door. Not so bad for me. The more, the better. I'd be happy to have a Med Kitchen in Sacramento to get the lamb schwarmas and I know my fellow schoolmates would be thrilled as well.

DB Challenge: Gingerbread House

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I chose the Scandinavian recipe because it only called for things that I already had on hand. The Good Housekeeping would be more of the American traditional gingerbread in that it requires molasses.


I had never made a gingerbread house before, let alone from scratch. So many people just get the kits. The challenge said to make the house and decorate it as you please, just that all items must be edible. It also required the use of a template. I found mine off the internet somewhere (can't find the site again). I rolled my dough pretty darn thick so that my pieces were a good 1/4 inch thick.


The assembly required using simple syrup to be the glue. Simple syrup meant just melting sugar. Unfortunately I went a little too far and ended up getting very caramelized dark syrup. You can see a long drip on my finished house. This also ended up tinging my royal icing that came in contact with it. So after a day my icicles were looking like dirty snow icicles. Oh, well.


The real cost comes from all the decorating elements. I ended up using only candy on mine. I suggest going to the bulk bins at Winco as being the cheapest. I ended up at Sweet Factory for their bulk bins and large assortment. They are pricier though.

Here are some other things you can use:
-pretzel sticks
-Necco wafers
-almond slivers
-After 8 mints
-Triskits
-coconut flakes

All in all I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I wouldn't mind trying a more complex one next year or maybe doing a Halloween one. I ended up taking mine to work and donating it for auction to raise funds for our food drive.

This is probably my last cooking post for 2009. I'm off to Seattle and will probably do a review or two of restaurants up there. I'm hoping that maybe I can hit some of their famous gourmet food trucks as well. So for now, have a happy and safe holiday and Season's Eatings to you all.

Scandinavian dough
1 cup butter, room temperature [226g]
1 cup brown sugar, well packed [220g]
2 tablespoons cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
3 teaspoons ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ cup boiling water
5 cups all-purpose flour [875g]

1. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves. Mix the baking soda with the boiling water and add to the dough along with the flour. Mix to make a stiff dough. If necessary add more water, a tablespoon at a time. Chill 2 hours or overnight.

2. Cut patterns for the house, making patterns for the roof, front walls, gabled walls, chimney and door out of cardboard.

3. Roll the dough out on a large, ungreased baking sheet and place the patterns on the dough. Mark off the various pieces with a knife, but leave the pieces in place.

4. [I rolled out the dough on a floured bench, roughly 1/8 inch thick (which allows for fact that the dough puffs a little when baked), cut required shapes and transferred these to the baking sheet. Any scraps I saved and rerolled at the end.]

5. Preheat the oven to 375'F (190'C). Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookie dough feels firm. After baking, again place the pattern on top of the gingerbread and trim the shapes, cutting the edges with a straight-edged knife. Leave to cool on the baking sheet.

Royal Icing:

1 large egg white
3 cups (330g) powdered sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon almond extract

Beat all ingredients until smooth, adding the powdered sugar gradually to get the desired consistency. Pipe on pieces and allow to dry before assembling. If you aren't using it all at once you can keep it in a small bowl, loosely covered with a damp towel for a few hours until ready to use. You may have to beat it slightly to get it an even consistency if the top sets up a bit. Piped on the house, this will set up hard over time.

Simple Syrup:
2 cups (400g) sugar

Place in a small saucepan and heat until just boiling and the sugar dissolves. Dredge or brush the edges of the pieces to glue them together. If the syrup crystallizes, remake it.

Pumpkin Mochi

This recipe comes from Allrecipes.com. I needed a dessert for a work potluck and I had just bought a lot of mochi rice flour. It's also the holidays. Combo all that together and I found a pumpkin mochi recipe.

Mochi has become more common and known about here on the west coast. It's found a lot in the new Japanese, tart style yogurt shops that are the latest trend. But Mochi happens to be centuries old to Asians. Basically it is glutonous rice flour that is shaped and used in different applications and called by different names depending on the culture. Mochi is a Japanese term. It is often shaped into little cakes and can be stuffed with red bean paste or other fillings. It's also become quite popular filled with ice cream. Think of Bon Bons with mochi around the ice cream instead of chocolate. The texture is a bit chewy. In the yogurt shops the mochi usually comes cubed like croutons.

For those unfamiliar with it and who stumble upon it at a potluck, they'll be confused about this boring looking item. Mochi can be very tasty and rich and the chewiness can be an acquired taste. Some might pass by it out of ignorance, but for those that try it, you'll find converts.

Pumpkin Mochi

* 2 1/2 cups mochiko (glutinous rice flour)
* 2 teaspoons baking powder
* 2 cups white sugar
* 4 eggs
* 1 (29 ounce) can pumpkin puree
* 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
* 1 cup butter, melted
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x13 inch baking dish.
2. Sift together the mochiko, baking powder, and sugar in a large bowl. Mix together the eggs, pumpkin puree, condensed milk, butter, and vanilla extract in a separate bowl. Stir the egg mixture into the mochiko mixture. Pour into the prepared dish.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour. Allow to cool before serving.

Chicken Pate

If you are looking for a recipe software program, then I highly recommend MasterCook. I got my first copy about 12 years ago. I entered in all my family recipes and some favorites I found through the years. Several new pcs and a couple of crashes and they were forgotten about. I still had them in backups, but I couldn't open them on newer systems. This month I broke down and bought the latest version - 9. With that I was able to finally see my recipes again.

One of the lost recipes that was in the backups was one for chicken pate. I had found it somewhere years ago and decided to use it with leftover turkey for a holiday party. This weekend I had another holiday party and was happy to have stumbled upon the lost recipe.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can use leftover chicken. I went and got a rotisserie chicken for dinner the other night and used the rest for this pate. It's also great because you can use it as a base and doctor it up with spices to your own creative imaginations.

I took it to our blogger potluck and it was well received. The biggest fan was two year old Eva. She kept going back for more. The adults seemed to like it too. Let's just say that I didn't have any leftovers to bring home.

The recipe is good on its own, but I wanted something for a little extra garnish, so I added a few capers which added a nice bit of extra saltiness to each morsel.


Chicken Pate

2 t parsley, flat leafed
1 t tarragon, fresh
1 red onion, 2 inch piece
5 oz cooked chicken
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp lemon juice
6 tbsp unsalted butter (I use less. It's to help create the creamy spreadability, so add to make it to your desired consistency.)
1 ts salt
1 tsp ground black pepper

Process ingredients in a food processor until finely pureed and well blended. Taste and adjust seasonings. Pack into ramekins and chill. May be stored four days in advance.

Mug Cake

It's no secret that I have a sweet tooth. This is problematic when one is single and has a craving for something sweet. Often I have the desire to bake a cake or pie. But then I would have an entire cake on my hands. Not a good idea.

On a recent Rachael Ray show there was a woman promoting her new cookbook - 101 Recipes for Microwave Mug Cakes. Turns out she had found a recipe for making a single serving cake in a coffee mug. She expanded on the idea by creating her own recipes to create a cookbook's worth.

I had my own craving and remembered that show. A quick search turned up a Wikihow page with three recipes - including the one I made.

Basically you grease a large coffee mug. Mix all the ingredients together in the mug and then microwave for three minutes. I made the chocolate cake with a handful of chocolate chips thrown in for good measure. It was pretty plain, so it could use a chocolate glaze. The easiest solution, though, is a dollop of whip cream.

We make microwave cakes all the time for Pampered Chef. I'm not sure why I had never thought about it before. I also have the Small Batch Baking Cookbook. Why not take those recipes and microwave them in a mug? I'm now curious to play around myself. But then again, do I really need to give in to my sweet tooth so easily?



Chocolate Mug Cake

4 Tbsp. cake flour
(other kinds of flour will work as well, but the cake will be heavier)
4 Tbsp. granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1 egg
3 Tbsp. milk (any kind)
3 Tbsp. oil (any kind but peanut)
splash in a little vanilla

Spray a large coffee mug with cooking spray. Mix together dry ingredients in the mug. Add the wet ingredients and mix well. Microwave on high for three minutes. Be careful! The mug will be hot. Remove it from the microwave with a potholder. Turn the cake out on a plate and wait for it to cool before eating.