Shrimp Burgers

Now that I'm finally home, I'm trying to enjoy summer by getting back to cooking again and doing more baking.  This was said with my fingers crossed :)  It hasn't been easy enjoying summer in Oregon when the sun isn't making its presence lately.  July has been a cold one, I think, compared to springtime.  But the weather has taken a turn this week, in fact, the rest of the nation on the east coast is experiencing a sweltering heatwave.  Not us, fortunately!

This shrimp burger is something that I enjoy making in the summer.  The grill is clean and ready, so why not utilize it to make something as tasty as this?  The good thing about this dish is that it isn't pretentious.  Armed with cheap white and soft buns, sliced tomatoes, maybe butter lettuce if you want it more elevated, and punchy tartar or cocktail sauce; it will satisfy hungry mouths at dinnertime.  My husband and I enjoy drinking shandy with our burgers, what about you?

Shrimp Burgers

Serves 6

1 pound medium (40-count) shrimp
3 tablespoons finely diced celery
2 tablespoons chopped green onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons lemon zest
1 cup bread crumbs--I used panko
3 tablespoons good-quality mayo
1 large egg, slightly beaten
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A few dashes of hot pepper sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons peanut or canola oil
6 cheap white hamburger buns
Lettuce for serving
Sliced tomatoes for serving
Tartar Sauce--recipe follows
Cocktail Sauce--recipe follows



In a 3-quart saucepan, bring 1 quart water to a full boil.  Add the shrimp, cover, and remove the pan from the heat.  Let the shrimp steep for 4 minutes, then drain.  Put the shrimp in a large bowl and cover them with ice to cool.  When the shrimp is cool enough to handle, peel and devein them, then roughly chop them.

In another bowl, mix the shrimp, celery, green onion, parsley, and lemon zest.  Stir in the breadcrumbs, mayonnaise, and egg. Take a wooden spoon and beat the mixture until all the ingredients are well blended.  Season with salt, pepper, and hot pepper sauce to taste, and stir once more to incorporate throughout the mixture.

From the mixture, make six 3-inch patties.  If you wet your hands with water, this process will be a little easier.  Heat the oil in a nonstick saute pan until hot and shimmering.  Cook the patties, three at a time, for about 3 minutes per side, or until they are golden.  Drain them on paper towels.

Serve each patty on a hamburger bun with lettuce, tomato, and tartar or cocktail sauce, if desired.

Tartar Sauce

Makes about 1 1/2 cups

1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup finely chopped dill pickles or sweet pickles
1/4 cup minced onion
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 tablespoon dill or sweet pickle juice

Mix all the ingredients together in a medium bowl.  Chill for at least 1 hour before serving.

Cocktail Sauce

Makes about 1/2 cup

1/2 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon prepared horseradish, drained, or more if desired
1/4 teaspoon Worchestershire sauce

In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, horseradish, and Worchestershire sauce and stir until well combined.  Let it sit for 30 minutes before serving.  This will keep in the refrigerator, covered, for about 1 week.  Let it come to room temperature before using.


Source:  The Big Book of Fish and Shellfish by Fred Thompson

New Orleans Shrimp Creole

This is a quick dinner that I made this week.  What I like about it was that the flavor of this dish is really fantastic; it was tangy and assertive especially when I added a touch more of Tabasco in my plate, it surely can kick the tastebud.  I really go for a bold flavor of a food and thankfully my family has a similar taste so if I had to cook something tasty and fast, I wouldn't go wrong with this dish.  

New Orleans Shrimp Creole

Serves 4 to 6

8 slices bacon, diced

½ cup chopped yellow onion

½ cup chopped green onion, including some tender green tops

1 ½ cups chopped green bell pepper

1 cup chopped celery

1 garlic clove, minced

2 cans (14 ½ ounces each) whole tomatoes, coarsely chopped, with juice

3 tablespoons tomato paste

½ cup chicken stock or broth

¼ cup red wine vinegar

½ teaspoon dry mustard

4 drops Tabasco sauce, or to taste

1 teaspoon salt

Freshly ground pepper to taste

½ cup dry red wine

1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, fry bacon until crisp, about 6 minutes.  With a slotted spoon, remove bacon to a plate, leaving 2 tablespoons bacon drippings in skillet.

Reduce heat to medium.  Add onions, bell pepper, celery, and garlic, and sauté until tender, about 6 to 7 minutes.  Add tomatoes, tomato paste, stock, vinegar, mustard, Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper.  Return bacon to pan.  Simmer over medium-low heat, uncovered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Add wine and shrimp and cook until shrimp turn pink, about 5 minutes.

Source:  The Big Book of Soups and Stews by Maryana Vollstedt

Mu-Shu Chicken and Shrimp

Mu-shu dish is one of my son's favorite dishes to order in a Chinese restaurant.  The idea of eating a spoonful of stir-fried morsels of meat, egg, and veggies and drizzled with hoisin sauce wrapped in mandarin pancakes, really delights his taste bud.  It's a tasty dish, no doubt about it, and there's some variations on how to include in the dish.

In a more traditional way, the dish is most often comprised of pork, dried daylily flowers or golden needles, and wood ear mushrooms, along with eggs, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine and scallions.  The less authentic way would be to omit the dried daylily flowers and wood ear mushrooms but to add some vegetables, for example, cabbage, bell pepper, celery, or snow peas.  

Rice is the traditional way to serve the dish, but here in America, mandarin pancake is served as the medium to eat the dish.  And let's not forget about hoisin sauce which is used to drizzle the dish as it goes in the pancake.

The way I cook it is by combining the best of the two ways.  I grew up eating daylily flowers and wood ear mushrooms, so those two ingredients would be present in the dish.  My family prefers chicken and/or shrimp instead of pork and I'm happy to substitute that.  As with adding vegetables in it, my philosophy is that there's nothing wrong of eating more vegetables in a dish :)  I use whatever is available, in this case, I used green cabbage.

No matter what your preferred protein/vegetable choice to include in the dish, just remember that if you cook it the right way, it'll come out delicious anyway!

Mu-Shu Chicken and Shrimp

Serves 6

½ ounce wood ear mushrooms, reconstituted

1 ounce dried daylily flowers or golden needles, reconstituted

10 to 12 ounces of boneless, skinless chicken breast

6 ounces raw peeled, deveined, medium-sized shrimp

4 eggs

8 tablespoons canola oil

½ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon soy sauce

¼ teaspoon sugar

3 to 4 large scallions, sliced diagonally, white and green parts separated

1 tablespoon Shaohsing wine

2 teaspoons sesame oil

For the marinade:

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon sugar

2 teaspoon soy sauce

Pinch of white pepper

1 teaspoon Shaohsing wine

1 teaspoon potato flour--can substitute with cornstarch

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon canola oil

Mandarin pancakes 

Hoisin sauce

To reconstitute wood ear and daylily flowers, soak each thing in a separate bowl with boiling water, enough to cover it, for 20 to 30 minutes.  Drain and squeeze excess water but leave damp.  Split daylily flowers one lengthwise and if it's quite long, cut in half.

Slice the chicken into thin, even-sized rectangular pieces.  Put it into a bowl with the shrimp.

Add the salt, sugar, soy sauce, pepper, wine, potato flour or cornstarch, and water to chicken and shrimp.  Let marinate for 20 minutes.  Stir in the oil.

Beat the eggs lightly with 1 tablespoon of the oil and ¼ teaspoon of the salt.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl it around.  Add wood ear mushrooms and stir for about 30 seconds, lowering the heat if necessary.  Add daylily flowers and continue to stir and turn until very hot.  Season with ¼ teaspoon of salt, the soy sauce and the sugar.  Transfer to a warm dish and set aside.

Wipe the wok and reheat until hot.  Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl it around.  Pour in the egg, and sliding the wok spatula to the bottom of the wok, fold and turn until the egg forms into lumps.  Transfer to a warm plate and set aside.  Wash and dry the wok.

Reheat the wok over high heat.  Add the remaining oil and swirl it around.  Add the white parts of scallions, stir and let them sizzle for a few seconds.  Add the chicken and shrimp and turn and toss quickly for about 1 minute or until partially cooked and turning opaque.  Splash in the wine around the side of the wok, continuing to stir and turn as it sizzles.  Return all the ingredients to the wok.  Stir and mix for another minute, so that the chicken it thoroughly cooked, the egg firmer and all the ingredients piping hot.  Add the green parts of scallions.  Transfer to a serving dish.  Sprinkle with sesame oil and serve with the pancakes and hoisin sauce.

Source:  adapted from Yan-Kit's Classic Chinese Cookbook

Bamboo Shoots with Dried Squid, Shrimp and Pork

There is no stopping my mom from cooking.  She is continually recreating familiar dishes after another, essentially flooding my palate with taste of childhood memories.  A spoonful of a particular dish could transport me back to my grandparents's house where I roamed in the yard, clad in tank top and shorts, playing in a hot humid Jakarta air.  Another dish would bring me back to our old house in a town west of Jakarta, eating dinner of simple meal.  Most of the time, our meal would be comprised of a vegetable dish, protein dish, and sometimes soup dish.  They were never pretentious meals, everything were almost always bought at the wet market in the early morning hours.  Prepared by my mom with a help from our loyal housekeeper in a small, modest kitchen, the dishes came out perfectly cooked, in my opinion nevertheless.  She would cook Indonesian, Chinese-Indonesian, or Dutch-Indonesian food; no matter what the type it was, our stomachs always thanked her for her wonderful cooking.

One of her dish was this bamboo shoots with dried squid, shrimp and pork.  I don't know exactly where she learned how to make it, most likely from her late mother-in-law, but it was an example of simple cooking resulting in a tasty dish. The way she cooks is never exact, everything is a guesstimate.  I love it when people ask her a recipe for certain dish, she would answer it unapologetically, it depends.  This will often throw people off, they are not sure if she's honest or not wanting to share the recipe.  But she cooks like that, the way I learn from her is by watching her make it; the same way she learnt from her mother-in-law.

For this dish, the shallots and garlic are ground into paste.  Bamboo shoots are sliced thinly, a bit share of pork shoulder are sliced thinly, a handful of peeled, deveined shrimp as well.  Take a small amount of whole dried squid, soak it in a bowl of water to soften it, then slice it thinly.  Stir-fry the shallot and garlic paste in a wok with enough vegetable oil over high heat.  Cook until it's quite soft and release its aroma.  Toss in the pork, shrimp, and squid; add salt and white pepper.  Pour in some water and cook over medium-low until pork is tender.  Taste to adjust the seasoning.  After a day or two, my mom will drain off the liquid, and stir-fry the dish again on a dry wok.  She will serve this with steamed rice and sambal, or red chili pepper paste.

See?  My recipe sounds just like hers :)

Shrimp, Corn and Avocado Tostadas

Everyone is talking about green and yellow and black and yellow for the upcoming game on Sunday.  You know what it is, it is the Super Bowl XLV.   What you eat or nibble during the game is equally important.  Perhaps this shrimp, corn, and avocado tostadas will satisfy the hunger for something crunchy, salty, and spicy.  It sure will be a hit with a huge crowd of rowdy fans!

Shrimp, Corn, and Avocado Tostadas

Serves 4

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 tablespoons lime juice

3 tablespoons minced cilantro

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Salt to taste

Hot pepper sauce to taste

1 pound medium shrimp, cooked, peeled, and deveined

1 cup cooked or canned corn kernels

1 cup (4 ounces) grated Monterey Jack or queso fresco

1 ripe avocado, peeled, pitted, and coarsely chopped

2 tomatoes

1/2 cup minced red onion

Salt to taste

Hot pepper sauce to taste

4 corn tortillas, fried

2 cups shredded lettuce

Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

Sliced pickled jalapeno or peperoncini

Combine vegetable oil, lime juice, cilantro, cumin, and coriander in a large bowl.  Season with salt and hot pepper sauce.

Add the shrimps, corn, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, and red onion to the bowl.  Stir, and season again with salt and hot pepper sauce.  This mixture can be refrigerated up to 24 hours.

When ready to serve, pile shredded lettuce on top of each fried tortilla, divide the shrimp mixture evenly and garnish with cilantro sprig.  If you like spicier taste, add some sliced pickled jalapenos or peperoncini.

Source: adapted from The Joy of Cooking

Shrimp, Potato, and Corn Chowder

The summer almost ends, in a few weeks we'll begin new days with shorter days and cooler temperatures.  Between entertaining my son from summer boredom, I'm also keeping up my personal blog with my vacation stories.  Prior to writing those stories, I also have to edit numerous photos from the trip.  Sometimes when it's too overwhelming, I take a break.  Some breaks are short, reading magazines or books, biking with my son; some breaks are long, canning blueberry pie filling and blackberry-chocolate sundae topper.  I still have bags of blueberries, safely frozen in the freezer, waiting for me to make use of them creatively.

There's already a box of freestone peaches that need tending, as I'm planning to can them as well.  I'm still debating whether to can all of them as fruit in juices, or to make some preserves, peaches pie filling, peaches preserves, or peaches ice cream.  I know, I know, the list is long, the time is short, I just need to make up my mind soon before the peaches go bad.

That got me thinking, what else is there to eat while we're at the season's transition?  Fresh corns.  Since there's plenty of corns still available in the market, I want to utilize them for my dinner this week.  Fresh corns are juicy, sweet, and flavorful, the best way to eat them in my opinion is boiling or grilling them until they are tender and slab them with butter and a bit of salt.  Back in Indonesia, grilled corns are flavored with many sauces.  You want sweet, salty, spicy, with barbecue sauce?  You can have it all.  But I'm not posting a recipe about grilled corns this time.  My mind wandered to soup.  Corn and potato chowder to be exact, because even though it is a soup dish, it doesn't have to have many ingredients in it.  With garlic, leeks, potato, milk, and cream, the soup is delicious.  If you use bi-color corns, the soup will look fantastic, and you could omit the shrimp to make it a vegetarian soup.  Give me a bowl of soup and crusty bread, I'm ready to sit and eat.  This is something comforting to make as I get ready to welcome the fall season.

Shrimp, Potato, and Corn Chowder

Serves 4-6



1 1/4 lbs. medium shrimp

3 corncobs, husks and silks removed

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 leeks, white part only, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 1/4 lbs. potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

3 cups chicken stock

1 1/2 cups milk

1 cup cream

Pinch of cayenne pepper

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat-parsley



Peel and devein the shrimp, then chop into 1/2-inch pieces.

Cut the kernels from the corncobs.  Heat the oil in a large saucepan and add the leeks.  Cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until soft and lightly golden.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds, then add the corn, potatoes, stock, and milk.

Bring to boil, then reduce the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are soft but not mushy.  Remove the lid and simmer for another 10 minutes.  Reduce the heat to low.  Put 2 cups of the soup in the blender and blend until very smooth.

Return the blended soup to the saucepan and add the shrimp.  Increase the heat to medium and simmer for 2 minutes or until the shrimp are pink and cooked through.  Stir in the cream, cayenne pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the parsley.  Season to taste with salt, then serve garnished with the remaining parsley.



Source:  adapted from Bowl Food by Katy Scarlett