I am usually not a big soda fan but I almost always am tempted by the pretty glass bottles of Italian Blood Orange Soda, especially when it is hot outside. I think about some in a tall glass of ice (okay, sometimes with a little vodka in there too) and the next thing I know I have multiple bottles in my shopping cart.

Anyway, I’ve seen this type of soda at Trader Joe’s and Safeway so I bet I could find it where you live. Here is a fun thing to do with it.

You could, of course, also use regular orange soda.

Italian Blood Orange Float
Blood Orange Soda (figure about 1 cup per float)
Vanilla Frozen Yogurt or Ice Cream (a pint should yield four floats)

Scoop some ice cream or frozen yogurt into a tall glass. Two generous scoops works well. Pour in soda until it comes up to the top and foams. Mmmm…tastes like a Dreamsicle!

Hot! Hot! It is hot in Portland. About 99 Saturday and 95 today (Sunday). Thankfully, we are, hopefully back to the 80’s and 70’s (yay!) this coming week. I am not a fan of hot weather, which is one of the reasons that I wanted to move North, but we do get a handful of 90+ days each Summer. This is a nice recipe for those kind of days or any kind of day, really.

I wasn’t quite sure how they would turn out but I am happy to say that both jwa and I really liked these shrimp cakes. They are also a great use for a bag of frozen shrimp (defrosted) that you may have hanging around the freezer. Also, you can use panko for all of your breadcrumbs here, but personally, I kind of like to save my panko for breading-type applications and use regular, plain breadcrumbs for filler type uses. So, I used both type of crumbs here.

When I made these, I did a half recipe and got four nicely sized cakes, which along with a Spinach & Strawberry Salad, was a good amount for two people. The recipe as written below, should yield eight shrimp cakes.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Shrimp Cakes
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
16 uncooked large shrimp (about 1 pound), peeled, deveined
1 large egg
1 green onion, chopped roughly
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp + 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 handful fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp hot pepper sauce
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
2 tbsp (or more) peanut oil (or canola or olive oil — I used olive oil)

Coarsely chop shrimp in processor. Add egg, green onion, lemon juice, 1 tablespoon mustard, cilantro, hot pepper sauce, salt, and pepper. Blend in using on/off turns. Add 1 cup of plain breadcrumbs and blend in using on/off turns. Form mixture into eight 4-inch-diameter cakes.

If you don’t have a food processor, I don’t see why you couldn’t chop the shrimp by hand and then mix it in with all the other ingredients.

Place on a parchment lined baking sheet or plate and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 2 hours.

Brush half of the remaining mustard on one side of each cake and dip in panko. Brush other side with mustard and repeat with the panko so that both sides are coated.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil of choice in a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Working in batches (if needed), fry cakes until cooked through and golden brown on both sides, adding more oil to skillet as needed, about 6 - 7 minutes total. Serve with Lemon and Paprika Aioli.

Speaking of, this is a mighty tasty sauce. Originally, it was paired up with Fish Cakes (using halibut) but I figured it would work well for the shrimp cakes too. It really did!

Spicy Lemon and Paprika Aioli
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp tomato paste
3/4 tsp smoked Spanish paprika (or 1/2 tsp Hungarian sweet paprika and 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper)*

Combine all ingredients in small bowl; whisk to blend. Season aioli to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

* But, really, imho, it is worth it to find yourself some Smoked Paprika because it is a little bit of awesome in a jar

My new goal is to post at least once a week. So sad. I was trying to figure out this morning why it is I’ve gotten lazy. Okay, one, because I’m kind of lazy. But also, (this would be point two) after having this blog for three (!!) years, most of the stuff I make around the house is not new. They are recipes that I’ve made and posted about before. There. I feel better now.

This is a great Summer meal. You could eat it all room temperature if it’s really hot or just have the sauce a little chilled. I used a little of my sauce as a quick marinade. I liked the way that worked as I also got grilled parsley and cilantro. Yes, cilantro. I added some of that to my chimichurri. If you don’t want to do that, just use all parsley!

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Halibut with Chimichurri
Adapted from a Gourmet Magazine recipe
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tbsp minced shallot
1/2 tsp hot red-pepper flakes
1/2 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 (6- to 8-oz) halibut fillets

Whisk together the 1/3 cup olive oil, lemon juice, water, garlic, shallot, red-pepper flakes, and 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper until salt has dissolved. Stir in parsley and cilantro. Let chimichurri stand 20 minutes.

Alternately, you can also do this in a food processor. That’s what I did as I wanted a finer consistency to my herbs and I was not really wanting to chop them finely.

Meanwhile, prepare grill for direct-heat cooking over medium-hot charcoal (medium heat for gas). Or, set your trusty grill pan over medium high heat.

Now, I took about 1/4 of my chimichurri sauce and spread it over the halibut before cooking. I let it sit for about 10 minutes. If you don’t do this, brush a little extra olive oil on the fish and give it some salt and pepper before cooking.

Oil grill rack, then grill fish, covered only if using a gas grill, turning once, until just cooked through, 8 to 10 minutes total. In my grill pan, I found about 5 minutes per side on medium to medium-high was good.

Serve fish drizzled with some of chimichurri; serve remainder on the side. Also on the side here is some whole wheat couscous and chopped cherry tomatoes.

First off, this was amazingly good. I mean I expected it to be tasty but it totally and completely surpassed my expectations. Especially the slaw. And it is finally almost Summer here in Portland. Woo!

Hey — I just realized that while I halved the steak and the slaw portions below, I made a full recipe of the marinade. Hmmm, I used some of that to brush on the meat while cooking, but I probably didn’t need as much marinade as I had, so I think the ratios below are just fine. And, I let the steak marinate in the fridge for about 5 hours. Reviews on epicurious.com also mentioned letting it go overnight. Good advice, I will probably do that next time.

New: Printable recipe pdf!

Grilled Asian Flank Steak with Sweet Slaw
Adapted from Bon Appétit
1/4 cup soy sauce
5 tbsp vegetable oil
5 tsp minced peeled fresh ginger, divided*
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 1 1/2-pound flank steak
3 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1-2 red jalapeños, diced finely
1/2 tsp orange zest
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
10 ounces of shredded cabbage mix
1/2 cup chopped green onions, divided

Mix soy sauce, oil, 3 teaspoons ginger, and garlic in resealable plastic bag. Add flank steak and seal bag; turn to coat. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes, turning occasionally. Or marinate up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Stir sugar and vinegar in small saucepan over medium heat until sugar dissolves; remove from heat. Add jalapeños and remaining 2 teaspoons ginger. Place cabbage, cilantro, orange zest and green onions in medium bowl. Pour vinegar mixture over and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand while grilling steak, tossing occasionally.

Prepare barbecue (medium heat) or a grill pan over medium-high heat. Grill steak until cooked to desired doneness, about 6 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to work surface. Let rest 10 minutes.

Slice steak thinly against grain and serve with the slaw. Use extra cilantro as a garnish if desired.

* I keep my ginger peeled and in the freezer in 1-inch pieces. This works well for me and I always have usable ginger in the house. Here I used a microplane grater to deal with the ginger quickly, which is fast becoming my favorite way to mince ginger.

So, if I post this today, maybe there will be an asparagus recall tomorrow? Originally, this was just an asparagus lasagna but i had some chicken sausage to add to it. Thus, making it Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna.

There was also, in the original, heavy cream that was whipped and spread on the top of the lasagna before baking. I was really intrigued by that but I opted to just use the goat cheese sauce for the whole thing. But at some point, I will whip some cream and bake it on the top of something, just you wait.

And it’s a good thing it has been cold here lately. Perfect lasagna weather! Although, I think we will be sunny and in the 70’s today.

Asparagus & Chicken Sausage Lasagna
Adapted from Gourmet Magazine
2 pounds medium asparagus, trimmed
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
4 chicken sausages, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, diced
Salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, heated
1/2 cup water, heated
5 ounces mild goat cheese, such as Montrachet
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest, or to taste
no boil lasagna sheets for 4 layers of noodles — I used about 8 full sheets (mine were about 4 X 6 inches) and 2 halved sheets
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Cut the tips off each asparagus spear and reserve half of them them. Cut the stalks of asparagus into 1/2-inch lengths.

If your asparagus is of varying sizes, use one pan for the thinner stalks and one pan for the larger stalks. That way, you can take the thinner stalks out of the oven first. In each of 2 large shallow baking pans toss half the asparagus stalks (and half the total spears) with 1/2 tablespoon of the oil, and salt and roast them, shaking the pans every few minutes, until they are crisp-tender, about 5 to 7 minutes. Set them aside. Lower oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Heat a pan with the remaining tablespoon of oil and add the onion and garlic with a little salt. Add the sausage and cook until done. Or, if your sausage is fully cooked (mine was), just get it to brown a little. Set aside.

In a saucepan melt the butter, add the flour, and cook the roux over moderately low heat, stirring, for 3 minutes. Add the broth and the water in a stream, whisking, simmer the mixture for 5 minutes, and whisk in the goat cheese, zest, and salt, to taste, whisking until the sauce is smooth.

Ladle a little sauce into the bottom of your 9 X 13 inch, oiled pan. Arrange 1 layer of pasta and spread each sheet with 1/4 of the sauce.

Top the sauce with 1/3 of the reserved roasted asparagus and sausage mixture and sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the Parmesan.

Continue to layer the pasta, sauce, asparagus, sausage and Parmesan in the same manner, ending with sheets of pasta. So, you will have the bottom sheet of pasta, three layers of asparagus/sausage/sauce and a final pasta cover. Ladle on the rest of your sauce.

Add the remaining asparagus tips to the top and any super skinny stalks of asparagus if you had any. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on top.

Bake* the lasagna in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes, or until it is golden and bubbling, and let it stand for 10 minutes before serving.

* I made this in advance of baking it, storing it in the fridge for about 6 hours. I let it sit at room temperature before baking for about 45 minutes. I found that I needed to add about 5-7 minutes to the cooking time above.