Molten Chocolate Cakes

Since Ryan usually makes me a cake for my birthday, I decided that I should bake something for his birthday this year. After looking at various recipes, I decided to try my hand at molten chocolate cakes.

This was the basic recipe I followed, but I made a few changes.

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter
8 ounces dark chocolate, cut into bite-size chunks
4 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
4 teaspoons flour (or matzo meal, ground in a blender to a fine powder)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Garnish:
1 (6 ounce) container raspberries, barely moistened and rolled in about
1/2 cup sugar right before serving

Directions

1. Melt butter and chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; remove from heat. Beat eggs, sugar and salt with a hand mixer (or whisk) in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Beat egg mixture and chocolate mixture together until smooth. Stir in vanilla extract. Beat in flour or matzo meal until just combined.

2. Adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a standard-size muffin tin (1/2 cup capacity) with 8 extra-large muffin papers (papers should extend above cups to facilitate removal). Spray muffin papers with vegetable cooking spray. OR use ramekins that have been oiled or sprayed with cooking spray. Divide batter equally among muffin cups or ramekins.

3. Bake until batter puffs but center is not set, 8 to 10 minutes. (When cracks begin to appear on the top, the cakes are done.)

Muffin cups: Carefully lift cakes from tin and set on a work surface. Pull papers away from cakes and transfer cakes to dessert plates.

Ramekins: Remove from oven. Let cool for a few minutes, then turn upside down onto dessert plates. It may help to run a knife around the edge before turning them upside down. Cakes can also be served in the ramekins.

4. Top each cake with sugared raspberries and serve immediately with vanilla ice cream.



Notes:

1. The original recipe calls for 5 eggs. Since I was just making cakes for Ryan and myself, I halved the recipe and used 2 eggs. They came out perfectly fine, so if you're doing the full recipe, I'm quite certain that 4 eggs will work.

2. Instead of rolling the raspberries in sugar right before serving, I tossed the berries in sugar before putting the ramekins in the oven so that they had time to macerate. When the cakes were done, I put the berries on top and drizzled the "syrup" over everything.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

This might be my favorite cookie recipe ever. I usually make them around Thanksgiving and Christmas, but sometimes I make them as early in the year as Halloween. Hey, pumpkins are a big part of Halloween too, okay?

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup canned pumpkin puree (can be increased to 1 1/2 cups for stronger pumpkin flavor)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 (3.4 oz) package instant vanilla pudding mix
1 package milk chocolate chips (12 oz or so)


1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease cookie sheets (or line with parchment paper or silicon baking mat).

2) In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla, then stir in the pumpkin puree.

3) In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla instant pudding mix; gradually mix into the pumpkin mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips.

4) To make the dough easier to work with, refrigerate for 45 minutes to an hour (or longer, it doesn't really matter). Roll into walnut sized balls and place them 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.

5) Bake for 12-15 minutes in the preheated oven or until lightly browned at the edges. If you chilled the dough, it'll be more like 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

Village Sushi

I *love* sushi. I could eat it everyday for the rest of my life. Understandably, then, one of my top food-related priorities when I moved to Seattle was finding good places for sushi. After reading reviews on Yelp, I decided to give Village Sushi a try. I first went there with Ryan shortly after they opened. The restaurant is inside of a converted house, so the atmosphere is very cozy (but it doesn't feel cramped at all). We ordered an assortment of sashimi and sushi rolls. Everything was delicious! I was especially impressed with the salmon sashimi, which was the freshest I've ever had.

I've been there several more times since, and I always enjoy myself. I usually stick to the sushi and sashimi, but when my cousin Adam was visiting me this past summer, we decided to get an order of their tempura. It was really good--not heavy or greasy. Two thumbs up!

I've liked everything I've ever ordered at Village Sushi, except for the oshinko (pickled vegetables). I'm pretty picky when it comes to Japanese pickled vegetables, and there were a few I didn't care for in the mix. Other than that, though, everything has been delicious! I'd like to work my way through their entire menu. Not in one sitting, of course. But their prices are extremely reasonable, so if you've got a big enough appetite...

Anyway, I'm going to leave you with a few pictures from my latest trip to Village Sushi. If you're ever in the U-District, definitely stop by and try them out. Great sushi, friendly service, good prices. What more could you ask for?

Because Google can't convert everything for you (yet)

I just discovered this awesome cooking conversions calculator at Gourmet Sleuth.

I used it to help Ryan figure out what 5 oz of bread flour is in cups (answer: 1.03). He made a very tasty loaf of bread, and yes, there will be a blog post about it! We forgot to take pictures this first time, so the post will have to wait until the next time he makes bread.

In the meantime, enjoy this nifty online tool. Happy cooking/baking/converting!

Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables

Last night, Ryan and I made a roast chicken for the first time. It ended up turning out really well, so we thought we'd share what we did.

We went to the U-District Farmers Market and bought some fresh herbs (thyme, sage, and rosemary), red potatoes, and green beans. Good stuff! Anyway, for our dinner, we decided to roast some potatoes and carrots with the chicken, and also have some green beans on the side. Other good vegetables to roast might be squash, zucchini, and artichoke hearts.

The oven should be pre-heated to 375 degrees. We used a 9x13 baking pan for the chicken. First we rinsed the chicken (make sure the inside is rinsed thoroughly) and patted it dry. Ryan lined the bottom of the pan with some sliced onions (cut into rings) and placed the chicken on top. We rubbed the chicken down with olive oil, melted butter, the fresh herbs, and some salt & pepper. Then we stuffed the chicken with onion, minced garlic, and some more herbs. After that, Ryan tied the chicken's legs together and pinned the neck skin.

We cut up the potatoes and carrots, then blanched them. After that, we tossed them with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. We arranged the potatoes and carrots at the bottom of the pan around the chicken. Then we roasted the chicken in the oven until its internal temperature was 180 degrees. Once the chicken was done, we took it out of the oven, covered the pan with foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.

While the chicken was resting, we steamed the green beans. It took about 5-8 minutes. We tossed the green beans with butter, garlic salt, and salt & pepper. Then it was time to eat!

The chicken was delicious, but the potatoes and carrots might have been even better. The potatoes were a little crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the carrots were really nice and sweet. We kind of pigged out and ended up eating all of the potatoes and carrots last night. Mm-mm!

Linkspam

Yikes! We've really been slacking off with our posting. I have a couple more substantial entries in the works, but until then...

Just a few links, mostly recipes I'd like to try at some point:

12 Months of 5 Easy Dinners

101 Simple Appetizers in 20 Minutes or Less

Stuffed peppers, corn salsa, and corn chowder

Stuffed pizza bread

Ola (8/26/08)

On our second-to-last night in Hawaii, Ryan and I went to Ola at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu (Google Map). We first went to Ola last summer--on Michael's recommendation, actually--and it's kind of become our unofficial go-to "special occasion" restaurant. We went for Ryan's birthday back in January, so this last time was our third visit.


We started off with some of Ola's complimentary bread...it reminded me of bruschetta, but the bread wasn't grilled. It was french baguette slices topped with a tomato (fresh and sun dried), basil, feta, onion, and olive oil relish. Yum.


For our appetizer, we shared the ahi cake salad. The ahi cakes were similar to crab cakes, but made with ahi and seared--they were still pink in the middle. I actually would've liked the ahi cakes to be a bit rarer, but I prefer my fish raw in general. Anyway, the salad also had napa cabbage, hearts of palm, mixed greens, and won ton strips. The dressing was a tobiko aioli. It was a bit ginger-heavy, but it went well with this particular salad.


Since we were eating seafood, we decided to get a white wine. As we did at 12th Ave Grill, we went with a Washington wine--14 Hands Chardonnay.

As for our entrees, Ryan had the citrus-glazed seared ahi. It came with Okinawan sweet potato mash (they made it with some coconut milk...so good) and a vegetable medley.


I had the seared scallops, which were served with cranberry-fig chutney, asparagus, pancetta, and orecchiette. It was delicious.


Finally, for dessert, we had the "Chocolate Decadence" cake. It was your standard molten chocolate cake with ice cream...nothing out of the ordinary, but it sure was yummy. Ryan and I really should try our hand at making molten chocolate cake at home sometime.


All in all, another highly enjoyable visit to Ola. That's three-for-three! The food has always been good and the service is consistently pleasant and attentive. Also, their menu now consists of half "permanent" items and half seasonal items, so I don't think we'll ever get bored with the food options. I'm sure Ryan and I will be heading back there next time we're in Hawaii.

Chocolate Haupia Pie

Ryan and I are leaving for Seattle soon, so we had a big BBQ last weekend. We decided to make two desserts for the occasion: brownies (which Ryan will be guest-blogging about later, since it's his specialty) and chocolate haupia pie.

I love chocolate haupia pie. Along with malasadas, it's probably my favorite local dessert. I first made it up in Seattle back in June. The recipe I had called for chocolate pudding and a graham cracker crust. It was pretty good, but not great. Then, at Costco earlier this summer, Ryan and I saw a cookbook by Jean Watanabe Hee called Hawaii's Best Local Desserts. She's written a bunch of "local" cookbooks; Ryan and I now own nearly all of them.

Anyway, there was a "from scratch" chocolate haupia pie recipe in her desserts cookbook, so Ryan and I decided to try it. It turned out really well. Ryan and I tweaked it a tiny bit and now it's even better!

Chocolate Haupia Pie


1 9-inch pie crust (from scratch or frozen)
12 oz (1 1/2 cups) coconut milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk *
1/2 cup cornstarch
1 cup water
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate **

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup sugar
Shaved chocolate or cocoa powder for garnish

* I use skim milk; 1% or 2% will make everything thicker/richer. I think using whole milk might be overkill.
** The original recipe called for 7 oz of semi-sweet chocolate, and we found that it made the chocolate layer a little overpowering.

Prepare pie crust.

In a saucepan, whisk coconut milk, milk, and 1 cup sugar.

In a separate bowl, dissolve cornstarch in water. Bring coconut milk mixture to a boil. Reduce to simmer and whisk in cornstarch mixture until thickened. (Note: If the coconut milk mixture is still boiling when you add the cornstarch mixture, everything will thicken up VERY quickly. That's okay; just make sure you keep stirring so it doesn't get clumpy.)

Melt chocolate.
(The original recipe says to microwave the chocolate, but we used a double boiler. Either works.)

Pour half the haupia into a bowl.

Mix haupia with melted chocolate and pour into the bottom of the pie crust.

Layer white haupia on the top. Cool pie in refrigerator for at least an hour.

Whip cream with 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form.

Garnish pie with whipped cream and shaved chocolate/cocoa powder. Chill for at least another hour.

Serve!

12th Ave Grill (8/21/08)

Last night, I took Ryan to 12th Ave Grill in Kaimuki (Google Map) to celebrate him finishing his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering. (Whoo hoo, go Ryan!) I'd been to the restaurant once before back when it first opened, but I couldn't really remember what I'd thought of it then. Ryan had never been before.

Ryan decided he wanted a Washington wine due to his impending move to Seattle. We ordered the 2005 Waterbrook Columbia Valley Melange. Our server said it was one of her favorite wines, and Ryan and I both liked it a lot. (By the way, you can bring your own wine, but there's a $15 corkage fee.)


They gave us two types of bread. Both were quite yummy.


We started with the Big Island heirloom tomato salad. I'd never had heirloom tomatoes before, but I've been hearing good things about them, so I really wanted to try this salad. It was quite tasty. It had the tomatoes, of course, plus mozzarella, arugula, anchovies, capers, and crispy onion rings. The dressing was an extra virgin olive oil and balsamic reduction. I kind of wish there had been more tomatoes, though. It's called a tomato salad, after all.


For his entree, Ryan got the kim chee steak, which is what 12th Ave Grill is famous for (at least, it's the dish that's most often mentioned when people talk about the restaurant). It was a flank steak that had been marinated in kim chee sauce. It came with some red bell pepper and onion, Big Island bok choy, and steamed rice. Ryan loved it. I tried some and it was very tasty. It didn't taste like kim chee, but it was a little sweet, a little tangy, with a bit of a spicy kick. Strangely, although the kim chee steak is so well-known, 12th Ave Grill no longer has it on their menu. It just happened to be one of the specials last night. So if you're planning to go to 12th Ave Grill for the kim chee steak, make sure to ask if it's going to be available on the night you go.


My entree was the Big Island ribeye steak. It had been rubbed with BBQ spices (according to the menu...I don't know exactly what spices those are) and then grilled. It came with "warm potato salad" (basically, seasoned chunks of potato and some little pieces of bacon), spinach, crispy onion rings (same as the tomato salad), and Hamakua woodear, which is a fungus most often used in Asian cooking (and incidentally, one of the only funguses I actually eat). It was really good. Ryan and I both asked for our steaks to be done medium, and they were cooked perfectly. Yum!


Finally, we had the brownie sundae for dessert. It came with vanilla gelato, strawberries in a port reduction, chocolate sauce, and these awesome little sheets of crystallized caramel or something (we couldn't tell exactly what they were, but they were delicious). The brownie itself wasn't that special (the ones Ryan makes are way better), but the dessert overall was very enjoyable.

Overall, it was a very positive dining experience. The wait staff is friendly and efficient. The restaurant was quite busy when we were there, but despite the small size of the dining area, it didn't feel crowded or cramped. It was a bit noisy, but not annoyingly so. I'd definitely go back, and Ryan said he was sad that he hadn't tried this place out sooner. Oh well. Perhaps we'll just have to stop by the next time we're back in Hawaii.

Pasta Casserole (easy!)

When I started cooking on my own, one of the first dishes I learned how to make was a ham-and-alfredo pasta casserole. I got the recipe from my friend Bri. It's really easy to make and everyone seems to like it. Win-win!

Pasta Casserole

You will need:

• Pasta - non-strand. Anything like farfalle, fusilli, or penne is good.
  
• Veggies - can be frozen or fresh. I usually use some combination of onion, broccoli, spinach, red/yellow/orange bell peppers, and artichoke hearts. I bet zucchini would be really good, but I haven't tried it yet. Mushrooms work, too. If using frozen veggies, don't thaw them first.
  
• Ham - the fully cooked kind. Sometimes I buy ham steaks; it just depends what's on sale.
• Alfredo sauce - from scratch or from the jar. I make this dish when I'm feeling lazy, so I've always just used the stuff in a jar. I like Classico's Sun-dried Tomato Alfredo best. If I don't have that, I'll use regular alfredo and add in sun-dried tomatoes myself.
• Shredded mozzarella (optional)
  

There are no exact quantities, except that I always use one jar of pasta sauce. It all depends on what proportion of pasta to ham to veggies you want.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook pasta. While pasta is cooking, chop up veggies and cube ham. Drain pasta. Dump pasta, ham, and veggies into 9x13 baking pan. Pour alfredo sauce on top. Fill pasta sauce jar 1/3-1/2 full with milk. Put lid on (duh), shake jar, and pour on casserole. Toss lightly until everything is fully coated with sauce. The dish should be slightly soupy-ish but not drowning. Bake for approximately 35 minutes or until veggies are cooked through. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle mozzarella on top. Stir and serve.

Hakone (8/14/08)

Ryan and I took my younger sister Pam out to dinner last night at Hakone Restaurant in the Hawaii Prince Hotel. The restaurant had a nice atmosphere and the service was excellent.

All three of us decided to go with the sushi-and-appetizer buffet option ($42), which also came with an entree and dessert. We ate sooo much food. The buffet included: salad, kim chee, takuan, tofu, and a whole bunch of other veggie type things, plus chicken karaage, chicken skewers, oden, crab legs, and some other things that I can't remember. And then of course there was the sushi and sashimi. Here's what I remember they had:

Sushi - Nigiri (ahi, ika, salmon, hokkigai [clam], ebi, amaebi [raw shrimp], red snapper), plus a variety of rolls (shrimp tempura, smoked salmon/avocado/cream cheese...)

Sashimi - Ahi, hamachi, toro, salmon, tako

For our entrees, Pam and I chose tempura, while Ryan got the wafu steak. Both were really good. The tempura had shrimp, scallop, shiitake mushroom, sweet potato, and asparagus. The wafu steak was super tender and came with a yummy dipping sauce. Very tasty stuff.

And after all that came...dessert! We had a choice of vanilla, azuki, or green tea ice cream. We all went with green tea. Mmm...green tea ice cream.

All in all, it was a great experience. According to the Yelp reviews, Hakone has a more extensive buffet on weekends. I bet it's amazing...one day I'll have to check it out!

(I forgot to take pictures of the food until it was time for dessert. Oops...)