NOD TO THE BERRY, BERRY BEST.

Byline: Natalie Haughton Daily News Food Editor

Judging recipe contests always seems to be a mixed bag. A gourmet's dream they are not. Some recipes are good, but many are not, lacking good flavor, appearance or creativity.

This became apparent again when I helped judge the California Strawberry Festival Berry-Off Challenge in Oxnard recently.

Overall, the strawberry contest judging experience was interesting and yielded a couple of good ideas, but could be improved in the future with some revision by festival organizers.

Contest coordinator Mary Barajas said recipes were not kitchen tested, but only perused on paper, to select the six finalists. Better recipes may come to the forefront if a small group of recipes culled from the entries were kitchen tested and tasted prior to presenting the final recipes to the judges exactly as written by the finalists. A professional consumer recipe tester rather than a restaurant chef (or students) might be a better choice for cooking the finalists' recipes to judges at their prime. In addition, contest rules - or it should be an unwritten rule - should specify that no contestant can be a finalist in more than one category - to encourage the widest range of participants. In addition, the best recipes seem to use fresh strawberries, so why not limit entries to using just those?

So, here are the details of how this year's judging went. One recipe in each of six categories (each of these finalists received $100) was selected out of the more than 200 entries from 22 states, then presented to four of us who would select a sweepstakes winner to receive $500.

The recipes were evaluated for originality, practicality, appeal, appearance, suitability and interesting use of the berries, which were required to be fresh, frozen or preserves.

The best recipes were the simplest, and those containing fresh strawberries as opposed to strawberry preserves.

In a departure from past years when contestants and, in the case of out-of-town contestants, students, prepared the recipes for the judges at a session at Oxnard Community College for the contest, festival organizers opted to use a chef and restaurant this year.

Robert Garcia, executive chef at the Embassy Suites Resort, Mandalay Beach, Oxnard, prepared and served four of the finalist recipes in a luncheon format for about 30 media, judges and festival guests in Capistrano's restaurant at the hotel. And during a reception before the luncheon, guests could view a display of the six finalist creations as prepared by the chef.

Two of the dishes were served only to the judges: Sicilian Strawberry Stuffed Grape Leaves, the hors d'oeuvres category finalist, and Strawberry Stuffed French Toast, the finalist in the breads, pancakes and crepes category.

But unfortunately, the judges were served display portions that had been put out a couple of hours earlier.

The grape leaves were weird - the strawberry filling just didn't work, while the reheated French toast didn't use enough berries and was nothing special. You could jazz it up by stuffing with cream cheese and plenty of cut-up fresh berries.

Now for the dishes served at the luncheon. It started with a Strawberry Spring Roll Salad, which was the finalist in the soups and salads category. The recipe called for rolling a mixture of fresh diced strawberries, cooked arborio rice, green onions, water chestnuts, minced crystallized ginger and peanuts in water-soaked rice-paper rounds, and presenting the cut-up rolls on a mixture of Chinese cabbage, watercress leaves and shredded red cabbage tossed with a soy, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar dressing.

It appeared the spring rolls had been fried, which the recipe didn't call for. When we asked the chef, he confirmed that he had taken that liberty, noting that without frying, the rolls could not be made in advance for this occasion. It also appeared that the rolls were served on assorted designer greens rather than those specified in the recipe.

The idea was novel, but the dressing was loaded with garlic, and the spring roll filling wasn't terrific.

Next came Cornmeal Crusted Chicken With Two Strawberry Salsas, an interesting creation that was the finalist in the main dish and vegetables category, but mysteriously named since only one of the salsas included strawberries. The recipe, which had great potential, would have been far better with one salsa, anyway. And if I were making the strawberry salsa, I'd add canned, diced pineapple to the strawberry mixture, and omit the crystallized ginger, which didn't add a thing.

For dessert we were served a Chocolate Cream Puff With Strawberry Truffle Filling. It looked gorgeous and the chocolate cream puff was a great idea. But the filling was disappointing, with strawberry preserves rather than fresh berries, which would have been better. I also think fresh whipped cream would have been superior to the whipped topping.

When the last and simplest creation, Strawberry Truffles, were served, there was no doubt we had a winner. This was it! A mixture of cream cheese, sugar, ginger and white chocolate was wrapped around whole berries filled with a little minced, crystallized ginger. One half was coated with coconut; the other half with pistachio nuts. Simple, showy, delicious, and a good use of fresh strawberries.

For those like me who aren't fond of ginger, I'd suggest substituting orange peel for the ginger root, and minced candied orange peel for the crsytallized ginger.

The Strawberry Truffles were the creation of Roxanne E. Chan of Albany, Calif., a veteran contest winner who also took home an additional $400 as the category finalist in four of the six categories - the cornmeal chicken, spring roll salad and stuffed grape leaves were also her entries. This brings up the question of why one person was eligible to be a finalist in four categories. Other contests such as the Pillsbury Bake-Off only allow contestants to have one recipe entry in the final competition. The festival should follow suit, or others will become discouraged from even entering.

Here's the winning Strawberry Truffle recipe along with two other finalist recipes that had potential and would be improved with the suggestions above.

And, if you love strawberries, mark May 17 and 18 on your calendar. The California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard will give you a chance to sample arts and crafts as well as indulge in berries in a myriad of tasty creations.

STRAWBERRY TRUFFLES

(Grand Prize Sweepstakes Winner and other category finalist - Roxanne E. Chan,

Albany, Calif.)

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, at room temperature

4 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root

5 ounces white chocolate, melted and cooled

18 medium fresh strawberries, rinsed and dried on paper towels

1/4 cup finely minced crystallized ginger

1/2 cup toasted coconut

1/2 cup finely chopped pistachio nuts

Beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar and ginger root until smooth. Add white chocolate and mix well. Chill at least 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Using a small melon baller, scoop out center of each strawberry, 1/2 way down each fruit. Pat dry. Put a little crystallized ginger into each strawberry. Shape cheese mixture around each fruit. Coat one end with coconut and other end with pistachio nuts.

Place Strawberry Truffles in candy cups. Chill until serving time. Makes 18 strawberries.

CORNMEAL CRUSTED CHICKEN WITH TWO

STRAWBERRY SALSAS

(Main Dishes and Vegetables Finalist - Roxanne E. Chan,

Albany, Calif.)

CHICKEN:

1 egg, beaten

4 tablespoons strawberry preserves

3/4 cup yellow cornmeal

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

SALSA NO. 1:

2 tablespoons strawberry preserves

1 cup diced pineapple

1/4 cup EACH snipped dates and diced red bell pepper

1 jalapeno chile, seeded and minced

2 tablespoons lime juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped mint

SALSA NO. 2:

1 cup diced fresh strawberries

1/4 cup EACH finely diced crystallized ginger and diced green bell pepper

1 green onion, minced

2 tablespoons orange juice

1 tablespoon EACH chopped cilantro and olive oil

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper

For Chicken, in a shallow dish, mix together egg and 4 tablespoons preserves until well blended. Combine cornmeal and ginger in another shallow dish. Dip chicken in egg mix, then coat with cornmeal mix.

Place on a broiler rack and in preheated broiler, broil 4 inches from heat 4 minutes; turn and broil 4 minutes more or until chicken is done.

For Salsa No. 1, combine all ingredients for first salsa; place in 1/2 of a serving dish.

For Salsa No. 2, combine all ingredients for second salsa and put in other 1/2 of serving dish. Slice chicken and arrange on top. Makes 4 servings.

CHOCOLATE CREAM PUFFS WITH STRAWBERRY

TRUFFLE FILLING

(Pies, Cakes, Cookies and Other Desserts Finalist - Joni Hilton, Sacramento, Calif.)

CREAM PUFFS:

1 cup butter

2 cups boiling water

2 cups flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

8 eggs

STRAWBERRY TRUFFLE FILLING:

1 package (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

2 packages (8 ounces EACH) cream cheese, softened

1 cup strawberry jam

1 carton (8 ounces) frozen whipped topping, thawed

Whole fresh strawberries

For Cream Puffs, melt butter in boiling water in a medium saucepan. Add flour, cocoa, sugar and salt, stirring vigorously. Cook until mixture forms a ball that won't separate. Remove from heat and cool 10 minutes.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. For each puff, drop about 1/4 cup batter, 3 inches apart, onto a greased baking sheet.

Bake in preheated 400-degree oven 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, for Strawberry Truffle Filling, melt chocolate chips in top of a double boiler. Beat cream cheese and jam in a medium bowl until smooth. Beat in melted chocolate, then stir in whipped topping.

Split cream puffs horizontally in 1/2 with a knife; remove any soft dough inside. Cool. Fill with Strawberry Truffle Filling. Garnish with whole fresh strawberries. Make 2 dozen filled cream puffs.

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Photo

Photo: Strawberry Truffles won the $500 grand prize in the California Strawberry Festival Berry-Off contest.