Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad

This Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad is tasty and fresh with an Asian-influenced dressing for the salad and garlic chili oil marinade for the shrimp. 

These days at our house, we are on a rota, taking turns making dinner each night. It started when I was out of town for a family emergency and my husband and younger daughter started taking turns cooking. “Ah,” I said from up north, quoting a line from one of our favorite movies, Liar, Liar, “My plan to phase myself out is almost complete!” (Always joking, of course! I ain’t going nowhere.)

When I got home again, they slotted me into the program and now we each cook every third day. This spicy shrimp and citrus salad was dinner on my last turn, two days ago. This served three of us comfortably for dinner with some leftovers. 

Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad

If you don’t have the little Cuties I used here feel free to substitute larger oranges and cut the pegs into smaller pieces. I must confess that I used just a bit more shrimp for my salad because mine were headless and cleaned but unpeeled and I didn’t know what the peeled weight would be. Headless cleaned but not peeled they weighed 1 1/2 lbs or 675g. After peeling, I started this recipe with 17 oz or 484g uncooked shrimp. My motto regarding shrimp is always the more, the better. If you've got 1 lb or 450g of peeled uncooked shrimp, it's all good.

Ingredients

For the shrimp:

2 tablespoons Chiu Chow Style Chili Oil (garlic chili oil)

1 lb or 450g peeled, deveined large shrimp 

For the salad dressing:

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 clove garlic, smashed and chopped

3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar

3 tablespoons canola or other light oil

3 tablespoons lower sodium soy sauce

2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon honey

For the salad:

2 short romaine lettuces, roughly torn

4 clementines, peeled and separated into pegs

2 green onions, cut in 1/2 in or 1cm lengths

5-6 small radishes, sliced thinly

White and/or black sesame seeds, for serving

Method

Give the garlic chili oil jar a really good shake then add two tablespoons to the shrimp and stir well to coat. Refrigerate until ready to cook. 

In a clean jar, shake together the grated ginger and garlic with the rice vinegar. Set aside for a few minutes. Add in the canola, soy sauce, sesame oil and honey. Close the jar tightly and give it a good shake to combine. Chill until you are ready to serve the salad. 

Heat a large skillet over a high heat for a few minutes. Tip in the marinated shrimp and push them around until they are in a single layer. 

Cook on the first side until they brown just a little then turn the shrimp over to cook the other side. Remove the shrimp to a plate to cool. If you’ve done this ahead and aren’t serving the salad imminently, cover the shrimp with cling film and chill.  

To assemble the salad, rip the lettuce into bite-sized pieces on a large platter. 

Top with the shrimp, sliced radishes, clementine pegs and green onion. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. 

Give the jar of dressing another sustained shake. If you are confident that your group will finish the salad in one sitting, spoon it over the salad plate. If not, allow each person to serve their salad and spoon dressing over each plate. 

Enjoy! 

It's time for my Fish Friday Foodies to share their recipes for seafood in salads! Check them out below. 

• Avocado and Shrimp Chopped Salad from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Mediterranean Avocado Salmon Salad from Making Miracles
• Prawn 65 With Couscous & Braised Veggies Salad from Sneha's Recipe
• Salade Niçoise from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Shrimp Salad on Toast Points from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Soft Shell Crab & Shrimp in Quinoa Salad from Of Goats and Greens
• Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad from Food Lust People Love
• The Polarizing Anchovy + Egg Salad Niçoise from Culinary Adventures with Camilla

Are you a food blogger who would you like to join Fish Friday Foodies? We post and share new seafood/fish recipes on the third Friday of the month. To join our group please email Wendy at wendyklik1517 (at) gmail.com. Visit our Facebook page and Pinterest page for more wonderful fish and seafood recipe ideas. 

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Snickers Bundt Cake #BundtBakers

This Snickers Bundt Cake is rich and super chocolate-y with a tender crumb. The Snickers pieces sink to the bottom of the pan while baking which means the top of the cake is full of them! Pour yourself a cold glass of milk and enjoy a large slice!

This month our Bundt Bakers host is Patricia from PatyCo Candy Bar and since May is the month we celebrate mothers, she encouraged us to use Mom’s favorite candy bar as inspiration or an ingredient to bake our Bundts. What a lovely idea!

I sent my mom a quick text, “What’s your favorite candy bar?” fully expecting her to say Heavenly Hash, a marshmallow confection with almonds, covered in chocolate. Honestly it’s the only candy bar I can ever recall her eating. Since the Elmer's brand (her favorite) are only available during the Easter season (and in Louisiana - where they are made) Mom usually has a supply in the deep freezer for when a craving comes on the rest of the year. 

You are probably ahead of me here since I’ve named this post Snickers Bundt Cake. That was indeed her surprising response. 

Snickers Bundt Cake

If you search “Snickers Cake” there are all sorts of recipes online but I kept this simple, making a devil’s food cake batter and just adding Snickers to that. It got several thumbs-up from family and friends. 

Ingredients

2 cups or 250g flour

2 cups or 400g sugar

3/4 cup or 90g natural unsweetened cocoa powder 

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup or 240ml canola or other light oil

1 cup or 240ml milk

1 cup or 240ml coffee - cooled but not cold

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

12 mini Snickers bars (3 1/2 oz or 100g by weight if you are cutting up larger bars) plus extra to decorate if desired

Method

Preheat oven to 375˚F or 190°C. Thoroughly grease a 10” Bundt pan and coat it with cocoa.

Whisk the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Cut the mini Snickers into six pieces each.

 

Add them to the dry ingredients and stir to coat so that they don’t stick together.

In a separate large bowl add the oil, milk, coffee, eggs and vanilla. Whisk to create a rich batter. Add the dry ingredients to the wet. Fold until well combined.

Pour the cake batter into your prepared pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Leave the cake to cool for about 10 minutes in the pan and then run your skewer around the outside and middle of the cake to loosen it. Turn it over onto a wire rack to continue cooling. 

If you are using Snickers to decorate the edge of the cake, cut the mini Snickers in three slices, like a loaf of bread and put them around the outside. Ideally do this when the cake is still a bit warm. The Snicker pieces will start to melt slightly. As they do, press them into the cake so they’ll stick. 

Leave to cool completely before cutting in slices to serve. 

Enjoy! 

Check out all the wonderful candy bar Bundt cakes! Many thanks to our host, Patricia 

• Almond Joy Inspired Bundt Cake from Magical Ingredients
• Coconut Slice Bundt from Sweet Sensations
• Hershey's Chocolate Almond Bar Bundt from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Hershey's Cookies'n'Creme Bundt Cake from Patyco Candybar
• Nuggle Mini Bundt Cakes from Passion Kneaded
• Snickers Bundt Cake from Food Lust People Love
  
  

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.

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Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù - Instant Pot

This Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù is not only delicious stirred through with a fresh herby ricotta, thanks to the Instant Pot, it is also quick enough for a weeknight meal. 

I honestly don’t know what took me so long to start using my Instant Pot. As I’ve mentioned before, it took a kitchen renovation to motivated me but, boy, howdy, do I love that thing now!

Anytime I see a slow cooker recipe that starts out by sautéing or browning something in a pan on the stove first, I think, HA. I can make that in the Instant Pot and skip the stove step. And I usually do. 

For anyone unfamiliar with the term ragù, it's just a fancy (Italian) way of saying meat sauce. Merriam-Webster defines ragù as "a hearty, seasoned Italian sauce of meat and tomatoes that is used chiefly in pasta dishes and that is typically made with ground beef, tomatoes, and finely chopped onions, celery, and carrots."

Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragù with Herby Ricotta

This recipe is adapted from a slow cooker one in the New York Times cooking section. The original took six hours to cook and contains only chicken. I highly recommend the addition of the hot Italian sausage to this dish you will make and serve in less than 30 minutes in your Instant Pot.

Ingredients

For the ragù:

19 oz or 538g hot Italian sausage

1 small carrot

1 small yellow or purple onion 

4 cloves garlic

2 large boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 10 oz or 290g each)

1 can (14.5 oz or 411g) crushed or diced tomatoes 

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme)

1 sprig fresh oregano (or 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano)

1 ½ teaspoons red-pepper flakes, plus more to taste

Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the herbed ricotta topping: 

1 cup or 250g whole-milk ricotta

Heaping 1/4 cup chopped soft fresh herbs, such as chives, oregano, parsley or basil, or a mix

zest 1 medium lemon

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

To serve:

10 oz or 285g tagliatelle, fettuccine, linguine or other long, thick pasta, cooked al dente according to package instructions.

Method

Peel and chop the carrot, onion and garlic. 

Remove the casings from the Italian sausage and put it in the Instant Pot on sauté. Cook for several minutes using a wooden spoon to break the sausage into crumbles as it browns. 

Add in the carrot, onion and garlic. Sauté, stirring often, for a few minutes more until the vegetables soften. 

Nestle the chicken breasts into the sausage and vegetables. 

Top with the canned tomatoes, tomato paste, olive oil, thyme, oregano, crushed red pepper and a sprinkle of fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Secure the lid on the Instant Pot and set it manually to 9 minutes. 

When the time is up, safely release the pressure. Remove and discard the herb sprigs.

Transfer the chicken breast to a cutting board and use two forks to shred the chicken then return it to the Instant Pot and stir well. 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta according to the package directions until al dente. 

While the pasta cooks, chop your herbs and combine them in a small bowl with the ricotta, lemon zest, balsamic vinegar and salt. 

Taste the sauce, adding more red-pepper flakes, if you like, and salt if needed.

Divide the pasta among bowls. Top with ragu and a good spoon of the herby ricotta. 

Enjoy! 

It’s MultiCooker Monday! Check out the variety of small appliance recipes my friends are sharing today. Many thanks to our host and organizer, Sue of Palatable Pastime. 

• Meringue Kisses in Toaster Oven from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Slow Cooker Thai Peanut Chicken from Making Miracles
• Beef Barbacoa Tacos from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Italian Sausage and Chicken Ragu - Instant Pot from Food Lust People Love
• Ropa Vieja in the Slow Cooker from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• How to Cook Jowar/Sorghum in Instant Pot from Magical Ingredients

                                                         

Multicooker Monday is a blogger group created by Sue of Palatable Pastime for all of us who need encouragement to make better use of our small appliances like slow cookers, Instant Pots, Air Fryers, rice cookers and sous vide machines. We get together every third Monday of the month to share our recipes. If you are a food blogger who would like to post with us, please request to join our Facebook group. 

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