Shrimp Ceviche

This is my last catch-up post from my time in Iowa cooking with my mom.  We had a little Mexican feast one night with tortilla soup, shrimp ceviche, and margaritas.  

When I was little I would eat shrimp that my mom would buy off the back of a truck from some guy.  Is that weird?  I think he would send us a postcard before he rolled through town, and then we would go to whatever parking lot he was stationed in and buy some shrimp.  I wonder if the shrimp man is still around.  Anyway, at some point in my childhood I developed an aversion to shrimp and stopped eating it for several years.  I'm not really sure what turned me off, but I just refused to eat it.  

Then came college and studying abroad.  I spent a semester in Spain, and my host mother would make paella at least once a week.  Along with the fish, mussels, and clams she would throw in shrimp.  I probably could have just said, "No me gusta gambas," but I didn't want to offend her so I gave them another shot.  I realized that they really weren't that bad, and I've been eating shrimp ever since.  A trip to Spain may not be the solution for everyone, though.  I have a vivid memory of my friend Jon trying to order paella at this little food stand in Valencia and telling them about five times that he wanted it "sin gambas."  Unfortunately for him, they ignored his requests and he got paella con gambas.  On a side note, it was at that same food stand where two of my friends, Katherine & Kathryn, shared a whole chicken.  A whole chicken!!  This seems to be a common theme among my friends.  See: chicken pot pie post  

Getting back on track, my mom and I made shrimp ceviche, and you should too.  It was very easy and very good.  We more or less followed a recipe from Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen.  The actual recipe is called Shrimp Seviche with Roasted Cactus, and here is what we used:

1 lime

1 pound medium-large shrimp, unpeeled

1 cup diced jicama plus more for serving

1 small red onion

1/3 cup plus 2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp cider vinegar

1/4 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp dried oregano

2 or 3 serrano or jalepeno peppers 

1 cup grape tomatoes

3 tbsp chopped cilantro

1/2 avocado

Start out by cooking the shrimp.  Squeeze the juice of a lime into a sauce pan, add the rinds, and add a quart of water.  Cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.  Raise the heat to high, add the shrimp, cover and let it return to a full boil.  Immediately remove from the heat and carefully drain off the liquid.  Tightly cover the pan of shrimp, and set it aside for 15 minutes to finish the cooking, then spread them out on a tray to cool.  

Once the shrimp have cooled so you can handle them, peel and devein them.  Cut them into 1/4" bits.  

While the shrimp are cooking you can start chopping up the other ingredients.  We picked up a bunch of peppers at the store not knowing how many we would need for the ceviche and the soup.  One and a half to two of the big, light green peppers went into the ceviche.  Neither my mom nor I realized how hot the big peppers would be.  Whenever I cut jalepenos I cover my hand with a plastic bag.  I skipped that with these peppers thinking they weren't very hot, and I was really regretting it the next morning when my fingers were still burning.  

Chop whatever tomatoes you're using.  We used grape tomatoes because all of the other tomatoes at the store looked pretty sad.  For the onion you can either slice it or chop it into bits.  Chopping it might work better so all of the ingredients are more similarly shaped.  

Mix the lime juice, vinegar, thyme, and oregano.  

Then combine the lime juice mixture with the shrimp, onions, and peppers in bowl.  Or whatever container you have laying around.  Cover it and let it stand at room temperature for up to an hour.  So says the actual recipe.  We did not cover it, and we gave it a little stir every ten minutes or so.  I'm not really sure why.  That's just what my mom told me to do.  And a few tomatoes prematurely made their way into the mix.  

After the marinating is done, add in the jicama, tomato, cilantro, and avocado, and season with salt.  If you think you're going to have leftovers, only add the avocado to your own serving.  Serve with chips or slices of jicama.  

Here's the whole meal.  Thanks, Rick Bayless.