Shrimp and Crab Ceviche on Fried Tortillas (Tostadas de Ceviche de Camarón y Jaiba)

Don't forget to share this ...

Shrimp and Crab Ceviche on Fried Tortillas (Tostadas de Ceviche de Camarón y Jaiba)

Ceviche (Se-VEE-che) recipes and ingredients vary by season and location throughout Latin America, but usually include one or more raw seafood items like conch, lobster, shrimp and/or fish. The seafood is chopped into small pieces, along with tomato, onion and cilantro. The mixture is marinated in lime or lemon juice, which “denatures” the proteins of the fish essentially, cooking it and killing the bacteria.  When making it at home, there are just a few key things to keep in mind. The most important is to use the freshest fish possible and beyond that it’s all about the marinating process, which works sort of like pickling.

Though the origins of the dish are not precisely known, with folks citing everything from Polynesia to Spain, the mostly likely true origins are Peru. El Pais reports that archaeological evidence shows native Peruvians were eating a dish very similar to modern ceviche as far back as 2,000 year ago. Peru remains the country most closely tied with ceviche, though you’ll find it and its variants all along the South and Central American coasts and Mexico.

The recipe below is a fresh mix of veggies, shrimp, and imitation crab with a citrus zing typical of Michoacán, the seaside Mexican state. Served as an appetizer on tostada shells or as a light lunch. If you’re not a fan of imitation crabmeat you can used cooked crabmeat.

Ingredients:

• Canola oil
• 6 to 10 4″-5″ corn tortillas
• 1 pound shrimp, shelled, Deveined and tailed
• 1 pound imitation crabmeat, chopped
• 3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1/2 cup cucumber, seeded and diced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 3 tablespoons cilantro leaves, chopped
• 3-4 Mexican limes, juice of
• Sea salt, to, taste
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation:

Pour oil into a heavy medium skillet to a depth of 1″ and heat over medium-high heat until temperature registers 350° on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches, fry tortillas until light golden brown, turning once, about 30 seconds. Transfer tostadas to a paper towel–lined plate to let drain and cool.

In a medium pot, bring 4 cups of water to boil, turn off the heat, drop in the shrimp and cover. Leave the shrimp in the hot water for 1 minute. Drain off the water and immediate submerge in an ice bath to stop the cooking.

Remove cooked shrimp and coarsely chop. Add Shrimp and chopped crabmeat to a large glass bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix until well combined. You may add sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Cover the bowl with plastic film and place in refrigerator to marinate. You may eat right away, but I prefer to leave for at least 20 minutes for best taste. In this recipe you do not need to worry about using the lime juice to cook the fish as both the imitation crab and shrimp are cooked.

Tools Used:

*******************************************************************************

Copyright Foodie Made Simple. All text, recipes and photographs are copyrighted and may not be published elsewhere without express permission. Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, Tumbler, Google+ and Facebook users, you are welcome to “pin” photos! re-tweet and “share” links all you like, just don’t copy the recipes themselves. Fellow bloggers are welcome to repost my recipes, just write the recipe in your own words, use your own photograph, then link back to the original recipe on foodiemadesimple.com