I should probably declare this week as seafood week, because it’s just one of those weeks, that I don’t care for meat. Sometimes I’m afraid of meat, but that’s a whole other story. I still haven’t been able to get snapper which is what I really want, but in the meantime, I just have to do with what I have readily available. This week happens to be one of those weeks that I just don’t care to go outside.
I have been eating lots of berries and drinking lots of natural juices, and by the way, the detox is truly amazing. Anyway, I wanted to create and authentic dish that was simple, d’luscious…..and non-meat. The shrimp and scallops were just screaming at me: “cook me please, ceviche, ceviche, shrimp and scallop ceviche!” So I did…..No I didn’t. I turned it out! Matter of fact…I turned it up!
The prepping is the most time consuming and labor intensive part of this dish, but it was all worth it. I had some sorry, mean ass limes that just wouldn’t give a drop of juice. Like seriously? Total waste of limes. Thank God I had some lemons that released their juices, and plenty of it without much effort. The citrus, tangy flavor of the lemons are the key flavors, that add such radiance to this dish. Thank God for those lemons, because like I said, I was so not in the mood to go shopping for anything else.
Ceviches are usually done with raw seafood, but I won’t chance that. The citrus denatures the protein in the seafood and kinda cooks it. However it doesn’t kill the bacteria the same way that heat would, so to be safe, I blanche the seafood in all of my ceviche dishes. I have an 86 year old grandma and the last thing I want to do, is be stuck in the hospital for a food borne illness. If you prefer to cook your ceviche in the citrus juice; that’s your choice and more power to you. I just haven’t developed that comfort level as yet.
In the meantime, I am loving all different variations and creations of ceviche. The fennel, avocado, red onions and all the other ingredients, absorbed the citrus juice in such a lovely way. As usual this was an absolute winner. I’m already conjuring up another ceviches recipe in my head. Maybe I’ll add some octopus next time.
What do you think?