Shrimp Ceviche

Ceviche is a popular dish originating from South America (Peru) and is usually made of fresh seafood ingredients (fish, shrimps, etc) marinated in citrus (lime or lemons), something spicy (chili, jalapeno), cilantro, tomatoes and other additional ingredients to your liking. Original recipe calls for fresh and raw thinly sliced seafood - the citric acid in the citrus causes the flesh’s protein to denature as it marinates thus essentially “cooking” it.

I leave raw seafood to the pros - my hack is I buy already cooked, deveined and peeled shrimps. I would rinse and pat these shrimps dry once i’m ready to make my dish.

As i love to experiment with other ways to make & perfect a dish, either by simplifying the ingredients, finding shortcuts (w/o sacrificing taste nor quality though) or using alternatives - i plan to try how to make vegan coconut ceviche like how they do it at West Hollywood’s Gracias Madre restaurant. They’re soooo delicious and addicting you forget it’s vegan! (i know!)

Ingredients

• 1 lb deveined and peeled cooked shrimp (store bought, that’s my shortcut!)

• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice

• 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

• 1/2 cup chopped tomatoes

• 1/2 cup chopped red onion

• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro

• 1 teaspoon+ of chopped jalapeno (if you like lil bit of kick!)

• avocado (optional, but i love adding it to my dish)

• salt

Mix all ingredients above, let the shrimp marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour and absorb all the delicious fresh & range flavors (tart and sourness of the citruses to the heat of the chopped jalapeno!).

I typically use tostadas (see pic below) or any chips of your choice (Tostitos, etc). To attain the ‘fresh” chips crunchiness, heat your oven to 350 degrees, toast it for 4 minutes!