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

The other day I was searching around and came across a recipe for onion marmalade. I tried it, tweaking it quite a bit so let’s just call it mine. Okay then. Anyway, here’s what I ended up with. Delicious! Great on bread, chicken, uh, turkey* and anything else you could think to slather it on.

Sweet Onion Marmalade
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp olive oil
3 cups chopped onions (about 1 huge onion — I used a sweet onion)
1.5 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup Balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup port wine
1 sprig rosemary
1/4 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
2 tbsp currants
Salt & pepper

Heat the butter and olive oil in medium heavy saucepan. Add onions and a light sprinkle of kosher salt. Cook for about 6 minutes.

Next, add the sugar and rosemary sprig and continue cooking until onions are very soft and browned, about 15 minutes. Adjust the heat as needed.

Add the vinegar and port and simmer for a while, about 5 minutes. A lot of the liquid will evaporate and you’ll be left with a loose, syrupy brown glob. It’s done! Remove the rosemary sprig and stir in the currants.

Taste and then salt and pepper as needed. Before serving, sprinkle the top with the fresh chopped rosemary.

Store in the fridge and then serve at room temperature.

* Ahhh, Thanksgiving. It’s kind of nice to say that this year we are going to James’ aunt’s house (hooray!) and I am not cooking. That gives me a year to think about next year’s menu! Ha!

A couple of weeks ago, when the weather was nice and cool, a big pot of melted cheese sounded like a great idea. Lately, with the temperature in the high 80’s, not so much.

But, we can relive those memories right here. This is based on a recipe in Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor and Swirl by Rick Rodgers. This is the same cookbook that I used for my last fondue experiment, Cheddar, Roasted garlic annd Zinfandel fondue.

For this one, I changed a number of things from the original recipe — used half and half instead of cream, decreased the cream cheese, added the wine and added more seasonings.

For Fondue
1 cup half & half
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 cup white wine (I used a pinot grigio)
1 garlic clove, minced
4 oz cream cheese, cut into small cubes, at room temperature
8 oz goat cheese (chevre), crumbled with a fork, at room temperature
1 tbsp + 1 tsp cornstarch
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp minced fresh basil
1 tbsp minced fresh chives
1 tbsp minced fresh parsley
1 tsp minced fresh marjoram — (or any combination of fresh herbs that you want to use — just shoot for about 3 - 4 tablespoons total)
Salt & freshly ground pepper, to taste
Optional: 1 1/2 tsp Fox Point seasoning (This is a blend of dried shallots, garlic, chives and green peppercorns and I really love it in stuff like this)

For Dipping
Crusty bread
Blanched broccoli or cauliflower florets
Diced, cooked chicken or turkey
Diced green apples

In a small pan or stove-top fondue pot, heat the half and half, wine and garlic over medium heat until bubbles appear around edges of the mixture. Gradually whisk in cream cheese until smooth.

In a medium bowl, toss the goat cheese with the cornstarch, mustard and shallot seasoning blend, if using.

Gradually whisk the goat cheese into half and half/wine/cream cheese mixture until smooth. Cook gently since overheating makes goat cheese grainy. Continue to whisk gently until the goat cheese melts and it is all creamy. Stir in remaining ingredients (the herbs and the lemon juice).

Taste, add salt and pepper as needed. Okay. Just one taste you. Leave some for the rest of us.

If you need to, transfer mixture to a fondue pot kept warm by a votive candle or flaming gel thingie. Since I just made mine in the stove-top safe fondue pot, I just carried it into the dining room and set it on the base, over the gel flame (on low).

Dip the bread, broccoli, apple and chicken into the fonddue. I found doubling up on the chicken and apple to be especially tasty in the creamy, herby cheese.

Also this week: salads, salmon and almond cake. Woo!

I was in New Seasons the other day buying some halibut and as I was walking through the produce sections I saw the cutest thing — garlic tops.

“Oh!” I thought to myself, “need to buy! Cuuute!”

Then I got home and realized I had no idea what to do with them. I did a little online searching and found this page — Mary Jane’s Farm about garlic scapes, which I think are slightly younger versions of my tops but I figured it was close enough.

I made the pesto, using half parm and half feta. I also added some pine nuts. Wow! The garlic! It burns! (But in a good way). I mixed about a tablespoon into a big bowl of hot pasta with some olive oil to start, as it did seem a little strong. But — by the middle of the meal, jwa and I were spreading the extra pesto on bread and mixing more of it into the pasta. So, so good. Just make sure you really like garlic.

Garlic Tops Pesto
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp toasted pine nuts
1/4 lb scapes (garlic tops)
1/2 cup olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Puree the garlic tops and olive oil in a food processor until smooth. Add the Parmesan, feta, lemon juice and pine nuts and process it all until nice and smooth.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on bread, crackers or with pasta (or all of the above).

So what else did we have with our garlic top pesto and pasta? Grilled halibut with this awesome marinade.

Awesome & Simple Halibut Marinade
4 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Let fish marinate in the fridge for about an hour. Salt and pepper liberally, then grill in the ol’ grill pan.

It turned out really nice and moist and was excellent with the side of pasta, tossed with cherry tomatoes, spinach and garlic top pesto.

I even brought out the balsamic glaze and drizzled a little over the fish and pasta to make it all look pretty.

See? Pretty!

***
In wedding news, I made the lodging reservations for most of the honeymoon in Victoria here. It’ll be nice to have a kitchen while we’re there. We’re also going to rent a car and drive up to Tofino for 3-4 days. We’re going to splurge and stay here. So very excited!

Also, I finished making the save the date cards and I should be able to get them in the mail in early/mid June (waiting on vellum envelopes and nifty return address stamp).

This recipe is from Fondue: Great Food to Dip, Dunk, Savor and Swirl by Rick Rodgers. I think I’ve had it for about five years but I haven’t used it before this batch of fondue. Why use it now? Well, jwa got me this awesome fondue pot for my birthday! It was on my Amazon wish list but I didn’t really expect to get it (because, dude, it’s a $135(!!) fondue pot), and he completely surprised me with it.

I thought he was going to get me the tea kettle on my list and I picked up the box and thought, “Damn. This is very heavy for a tea pot.” Well, that’s because it was a cast iron fondue pot. Hooray!

For the first recipe, I thought and thought. Then I thought about it some more. What is worthy of the first fondue in this great new pot? Well, one that has red wine, a whole block of Tillamook extra sharp cheddar and two heads of roasted garlic, that’s what.

For the fuel, I went to the Williams-Sonoma by work and got a 3-pack of those gel tubs for fondue pots. It worked just fine in the burner. Oh and in my haste to start snacking (I mean, c’mon — it’s a whole pot of melted cheese and wine!!!), I forgot to wipe down the edges of the pot. So, pictures are not as pretty but we were dipping faster. Hey, it’s a trade off I’m willing to live with.

Cheddar, Roasted Garlic and Zinfandel Fondue
1 cup Zinfandel wine
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
12 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup roasted garlic puree (2 heads of garlic, roasted, then squeezed out and mashed with a fork)
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

Start by preparing your dippers. Cut up the bread, blanch the broccoli and brown the sausage.

When that is all done, bring the zinfandel and red wine vinegar to a simmer in a heavy-bottomed sauce pan. Then, in a bowl, toss the grated cheeses with the cornstarch. Add a handful of the cheese at a time to the simmering wine and vinegar, stirring until melted. Continue adding by the handfuls until it is all incorporated.

Next, whisk in the roasted garlic and add the pepper flakes. Taste and add a little salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the fondue to a fondue pot and serve immediately. Keep hot over a fondue burner. Dip with broccoli, browned turkey sausage and hunks of bread — we used cubes of pumpernickel and some olive ciabatta.

For the broccoli, I just blanched the broccoli in boiling water for about 2 minutes.

Using the cheddar worked pretty well. The fondue had a very smooth consistency at first but towards the end of the pot, it did get a little grainy. I didn’t mind too much (and jwa not at all) because the flavor was so good. I’m thinking some sort of chocolatey dessert fondue next.