Shrimp Ceviche Jen Style
As my readers already know, spending time in the kitchen with friends and family brings me immense joy! On a recent winter trip to South Florida, I spent time visiting my step sister for some much needed girl-time. Just she and I sharing stories, recipes, cooking ideas and tasty beverages. I come from a very large family. So it’s not often that I get to spend one on one time with a sibling. We did a mixture of eating out at some lovely restaurants and cooking up some tasty meals in her home.
Today I’m excited to share with you one of Jenette’s favorite dishes. Shrimp Ceviche. Jenette served it as a first course one evening along side some fresh corn tortilla chips. You can also make a batch and serve it as a full meal for lunch…placing it on top of or in butter lettuce leaves with a side of fresh fruit.
It’s interesting to note the Ceviche has its origins in Peru and Ecuador. The name denotes a cooking technique. Taking raw fish and marinating it in citrus juice. In this case lots of freshly squeezed lime juice. Placing fresh, raw fish in citrus juice “cooks” or “denatures” the fish. While it doesn’t actually “cook” the fish like heat does, the marinating makes the fish look cooked.
Jenette is not a fan of raw fish (no sushi or sashimi for this woman)! So we purchased frozen raw shrimp. Thawed it. Peeled it. Popped it into a pot of salted, boiling water for ONE minute. Removed it to an ice bath. Drained well and then chopped it into small pieces before adding it to the bowl with all other ingredients. If you choose to use raw shrimp, just make sure it is high quality and fresh. Let it soak by itself in the lime juice for at least 15-30 minutes before adding the remaining ingredients.
This is such an easy dish to make with only about 7 ingredients. All we had to do was chop all the ingredients up in small pieces and place them in a glass bowl. We let it sit for 30 minutes (enough time to pour ourselves a refreshing cocktail). After it had time to marry all of the fresh flavors, we enjoyed this bright, beautiful, fresh ceviche together and had more time to sit and chat and catch up with one another.
Shrimp Ceviche Jen Style
Ingredients
- 1 pound small shrimp, lightly cooked, chopped small
- 1 cup red onion, finely diced
- 1/2 cup jalapeno peppers, finely diced seeds and veins removed
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped
- 4 plum tomatoes, finely diced seeds removed
- 1 large fresh avocado, finely diced
- 4-5 limes, juiced
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Bring large pot of water to boil
- Toss in peeled and deveined raw shrimp. Cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes
- Remove shrimp from pot and immediate plunge into ice water bath
- Once shrimp cools, drain well and pat dry
- In a large bowl add all ingredients, including the shrimp.
- Let sit for up to 30 minutes.
- Serve alongside corn tortilla chips
Notes
- If you want to make this with fresh, raw shrimp. Add shrimp to the lime juice in a glass bowl and let sit for 15 minutes before adding all other ingredients and let sit an additional 15 minutes.
- If you like more heat – consider using fresh serrano chili peppers or leave some of the veins in the jalapeno peppers (where the heat resides).
- If you have a favorite Mexican spice blend – feel free to sprinkle that into the dish.
- Most importantly…TASTE this dish when you first add salt and pepper. Let it sit and TASTE again. Add additional ingredients to your liking…you might want more lime juice, salt and pepper, etc.
