Fish and Shrimp Ceviche

While visiting my family in Monterrey back in 2011, I spent a whole month trying to catch up with everyone. I spent most of my days with my God Mother (madrina), tia Minerva. During the day I would often help her cook for “la comida”, which is later in the day compared to lunch time here in the states. In the morning hours I would watch cooking shows and try to take notes on Mexican recipes that I would try to recreate once back in New York.  One of the many recipes that I did try soon after arriving home was a recipe they called “Ceviche Para Tacos”. I loved cevicbe, but was still a bit leary of preparing it at home. I was one of those people who was always afraid that the seafood would be raw and that I would get sick! Lol! Or even worse make someone else sick in the process. And another big reason I hesitated in preparing seafood, solely cooked in lime juice, is the fact that I live in an area where fresh, really fresh, seafood is not available. Very few of the markets offer a seafood counter and I end up purchasing frozen seafood. Don’t get me wrong, the frozen varieties can yield some pretty tasty dishes! So rather than go without one of my favorite dishes, which is ceviche, I learned to adapt. I lightly poach my fish and shrimp in a salt and lemon or lime broth just enough to ensure that it is cooked through. The seafood cools and once mixed with all the citrus, it will continue to finish cooking. A few things that really caught my attention about this recipe was the use of the celery in the blended sauce and the toasted garlic that is added at the end! So delicious! Since that first time, I have prepared a variety of seafood ceviches ,cooked in fresh lime juice, and I loved it! But for today’s recipe, I am going to share it with you the way I originally posted it on the Hispanic Kitchen site back in 2012.   

Fish and Shrimp Ceviche (Cebiche)

Yields 6 Servings

Ingredients

1 pound white fish (I used mahi mahi)
1 pound jumbo shrimp, peeled and cleaned
l 1/3 cups fresh lime juice
1 cup cooled shrimp/fish broth
3 stalks celery, roughly chopped
3 serranos, roughly chopped ( I also used 1 seeded habanero)
1 bunch of cilantro, washed and divided
1 small red, thinly sliced
2 Roma tomatoes, sliced into thin wedges
1 avocado, sliced into thin wedges
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce for garnish

Directions

1. Heat four cups of salted water with 1/3 cup of lime juice to medium heat. Once it comes to a boil, add the cleaned and peeled shrimp. Leaving the tails on is optional. Poach for just under a minute or until shrimp turns pink. Remove from water and transfer to a bowl of ice water.

2. To that same poaching liquid, add the fish pieces two at a time and poach for about 3-5 minutes. Transfer to plate and let cool, cover and chill until ready to use. Strain out 1 cup of the seafood broth into a bowl and chill to cool.

3. Once seafood broth has cooled, transfer to the blender. Also add 1 cup of lime juice, celery, jalapenos, half of cilantro, salt and pepper to taste. Blend until smooth. Taste for salt.

4. In a large bowl, combine the red onions, tomatoes, chopped cilantro, chopped white fish and jumbo shrimp, add the contents of blender, gently stir to combine tasting for salt and pepper.

5. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil to medium/low heat, add 6 cloves of minced garlic, cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until lightly golden in color. While still hot gently fold garlic into the ceviche. Let stand at room temperature for 15 minutes. Fold in the sliced avocado. Garnish with fresh chile sliced and hot sauce. Serve with corn tortilla chips, tostadas or saltine crackers.

In the original recipe, they used only white fish, no shrimp. And they did cook the fish in the lime juice. The seasoned liquid, after the fish had cooked was referred to as Leche de Tigre(milk of the tiger). That is the liquid/broth that was used to blend with the fresh lime juice, celery, chiles and cilantro. You can read how I adapted it to fit my recipe.

Tips~ If you are going to serve this to a larger group with chips, I would suggest chopping the fish and shrimp into smaller pieces after you cook it. 

Tips~ The toasted garlic is mild and not strong at all. I often use this toasting methos for many of my pasta dishes. I add the garlic at the end.

Now that I have learned over the past five years more about ceviche and aguachile, I would say this is a cross between both of those.