Lauren's Fritatta

Yesterday my friend Lauren called and said she was coming over to make fritatta.  My first thought was, "Yay! Someone's making me dinner!" My second thought was, "Damn, nothing rhymes with fritatta." Luckily for me, she showed up with shrimp cakes.  Lauren's a bit of an overachiever so not only did she bring over all her own ingredients, she also brought a bottle of wine, a cute Asian oilcloth bag, and already formed shrimp cakes, ready for frying. 

We commenced the frying and sauce making, threw some edamame in a pot to boil, and cut up some insipid napa that had been in my vegetable drawer for awhile.  Then we served some hungry menfolk that were over at my house working on a solar heating project.  The boys all commented on the deliciousness of the shrimp cakes.  Foodies they are not so we heard comments such as, ""Mmmm, they taste like hamburgers."  My husband got a Beavis and Butthead style snicker out of the word panko.  It sounds a lot like the Spanish word "penco"which translates loosely into "crude boorish person." Our friend Pingo was still hungry after our meal, so he reheated some pizza and put the sauce on that and was greatly admired by the other boys at the table for his culinary creativity. 

It was a good night.  The menfolk did the dishes and then went up to the roof with some rum and coke.  Instead of getting right to work on the solar project, they used the parts to make Lauren's fiance look like a Tranformer. 

Shrimp Cakes with Chili Cream Sauce

Shrimp cakes:

16 raw peeled shrimp                                              1 large egg

1 sliced green onion                                                 2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp Dijon mustard                                               1 Tbsp cilantro

1/2 tsp hot sauce                                                      1/2 tsp salt

2 c. panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)                      pepper to taste

Sauce:

1/4 c. white wine

1/4 c. lime juice

1 Tbsp minced ginger

1 Tbsp minced onion

1/3 c. heavy whipping cream

2 Tbsp chile-garlic sauce

6 Tbsp butter

**Coarsley chop the shrimp.  Using a blender stick thingy or a regular blender pulse shrimp with egg, green onion, lemon, mustard, cilantro, hot sauce, salt and pepper.  Add 1 c. panko and pulse some more.  Form mixture into 6 cakes.  Roll them in the remaining panko.  Refridgerate until ready to fry.

**Put first 4 sauce ingredients in a pot and boil til reduced by half.  Add cream and reduce by half again.  Whisk in chile sauce and butter.

**Heat 2 Tbsp. oil.  Fry cakes in bathes until golden brown on both sides.  Add oil as needed.

** Top with sauce and serve.

It’s Panko, Penco!

So here’s a question:

Can anyone guess

The Japanese breadcrumb

That chefs like best?

It’s panko, penco

You crude silly fool,

Did you not read the title

Are you a complete tool?

Who you calling penco?

Me? Who me?

I may rock the panko,

But I’m not penca, you see

I can cook some tempura

I can rhyme adeptly

But a penca I’m not.

I speak politely.