Ceviche With a Twist!

Ceviche! or as my dad would call it... "Sha-vi-cha!" I don't know why my dad has to pronounce foods, stores, and names incorrectly. I'm not sure if he does it on purpose, but it's extremely embarassing yet hilarious at the same time. Everytime we drive by Chipotle, he yells out "Chi-potol!" but now pretend you have one of those stereotypical Asian accents and try saying it. Admit it, you can't say it without laughing or smiling! My mom finds it more embarassing than I do, but we all laugh about it in the end. It's what keeps us all sane.

Anyhow, my parents went to an all-inclusive resort in Cancun last summer and they pretty much loved it. My mom, the REAL chef/foodie (she makes me and my brother look like amateurs), said everything was exceptional and can't wait for the whole family to go next time. The only thing my dad kept talking about though was the "SHAVICHA!" I'm pretty sure that was his first time trying it but whenever a restaurant offers ceviche, we almost always order it. Does anyone know restaurants with tasty ceviche in Orange County? I'll have to take my dad.

So I tried to make my own ceviche with an Asian twist using fresh Thai Basil and Sriracha hot sauce. I'm salivating as I look at this picture because we don't have anymore left. = / Nooo! I really wish that I'd start making recipes, but I'm constantly tasting and seasoning so my initial 1/3 cup of lime juice ends up being more like 1/2 cup of lime juice. As I get better (and less lazy), I hope I can start providing recipes for everyone to follow. It just seems like such a hassle to keep a notepad next to me and write down the exact measurements of every single ingredient. Since I also think that ceviche is something you could "season to taste," I'll go ahead and list out the ingredients I used:



- 1/2 pound Scallops
- 1/2 pound Shrimp
- 5 Roma Tomatoes
- 1 English Cucumber
- 1 Sweet Onion
- Handful of Cilantro
- Handful of Thai Basil
- 1/2 cup of lime juice (maybe more)
- 1 tsp + Sriracha hot sauce
- Ketchup
- Sugar
- Salt/Pepper
- Wonton wrappers


I know that most ceviche recipes use the lime juice to "cook" the seafood but just to be safe (I'm only 20, I'm too young to die!!! hahaha), I quickly boiled the shrimp and scallops (less than a minute!) Remove from the water, and dice the shrimp and scallops into small pieces approximately 1/4" to 1/2" in size. Dice your veggies similarly, mix with seafood, and add lime juice. Finely chop the cilantro and thai basil (I used equal amounts of each), and also mix. Here comes the tricky part because you will want to season this to taste and I wish I could remember exactly how much ketchup, salt, pepper, sugar, and hot sauce I added. Once you figure this all out, you want to "marinate" everything for at least an hour that way 1) you're not eating warm ceviche (gross) and 2) everything will taste like heaven.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 300 degrees to make cool wonton shells! Not so sure if you can get wonton shells at Ralphs or Albertsons...but if you can, awesome! If not then you might have to go to an Asian supermarket like the 99 Ranch Market. You want to trim the wonton wrappers to 2-inch squares/circles and then bake them in greased, small muffin tins. Bake them for approximately 7 minutes or until they look golden brown. By the time you've finished baking 50 of these shells for your party, your ceviche will be ready! Woohoo! ENJOY!


SHAVICHA!

-Little Bro