- Ceviche is just one of my favorite foods of all time.
And I'm not exaggerating when I say
we've made it like a hundred times.
You're gonna laugh, but my husband and I can literally
down the entire batch between the two of us.
Plus, there is a secret ingredient in this
that will make your ceviche next level delicious.
And I'm totally craving some ceviche, so let's get started.
To start, you'll need one pound of shrimp.
For this ceviche, you can use either raw
or cooked shrimp meat.
Rinse and drain your shrimp
and transfer them to a large mixing bowl.
Now, you'll need to marinate your shrimp in lime juice.
Here's a tip on buying limes.
Look for limes that have a smooth and round skin,
they'll have more juice.
You can also roll the limes on your countertop
to help them release more juice,
then squeeze them over your shrimp meat.
You'll need about six limes
or enough lime juice to cover the shrimp.
This is my favorite citrus squeezer
and I will link to it in the recipe notes.
But even with this, I like to enlist a little bit of help.
You love me.
If you really wanna make those limes go further,
you can use the leftover peels in water
to make flavored water or toss them in your disposal,
and it'll make your kitchen smell fresh.
With raw shrimp,
you'll wanna marinate that in the refrigerator
for about two hours
or until the shrimp are no longer translucent.
With cooked shrimp, the marinating time is just 15 minutes
or the time it takes to prep the rest of the veggies.
Chop up one red onion.
You can also use yellow onion or white onion,
whatever you have on hand.
Add that to your mixing bowl with the shrimp.
Then, we're gonna dice up one English cucumber.
I love adding cucumber to ceviche
because it bulks it up and adds just a nice crisp freshness.
In the summer months,
ceviche is even better using fresh garden cucumbers.
Now, I'm gonna show you one of my favorite tools
that makes chopping ceviche or any chopped salad
so much faster and easier.
It is my Vidalia chopper.
I will link to this in the recipe notes.
I've been using this and loving it for years.
Add the diced cucumbers to your mixing bowl.
And next, we're gonna dice up tomatoes.
Here's a quick tip for slicing tomatoes
since they can be a little bit slippery.
For safer slicing,
use either a very sharp knife or a serrated knife.
And we're gonna use our food chopper again
to make the process so much faster and easier.
But you can chop these up by hand if you prefer.
Add those to your mixing bowl.
And now, we're gonna chop up one of my favorite things
to use this food chopper for is a jalapeno.
Cut the jalapeno in half and scrape out the seeds.
Now, simply set the jalapeno onto your food chopper
and press it down.
It is the easiest way to chop a jalapeno.
Now, on to the avocados.
To check for ripeness,
remove the stem and it should look bright green underneath.
It also should have some give when you squeeze it.
You don't wanna use an avocado that's overly smushy
for a salsa.
Cut the avocado in half, then into quarters
to easily remove the pit, then dice it up.
I personally enjoy dicing up avocado by hand
because it's soft and easy.
But my husband will literally put everything
into the food chopper that he can,
so I'll show you how anyways.
Add the diced avocado to your mixing bowl
along with all of your other ingredients.
(upbeat music)
I'm gonna give my hands a rinse.
And now, it's time to chop up some fresh cilantro.
Cilantro adds this wonderful vibrance and fresh flavor
to any salsa, so I like to be generous with it.
Chop it up and add it to the mixing bowl.
All right, now, the secret ingredient,
and one of our readers, Blanca, wrote in with this tip,
this is how she makes her authentic Mexican ceviche.
She uses, I guess you already saw it standing there,
Clamato juice.
It is a tomato juice cocktail
and if you can find it, go for the picante version,
which is a little bit spicier, which we love.
Or get the original if you like it more mild.
But this stuff, it just melds all the flavors in it.
It just adds a little something, something.
It's wonderful.
All right, I'm gonna add about a cup of this.
About.
That's the last of it, I guess I need more.
All right, now, just stir it all up.
And because we were using cooked shrimp,
we don't really have to wait
for it to cook through with the lime juice,
but it has been soaking up all that great lime flavor.
Now, I know what you're thinking,
there's no way the two of you eat all of that.
Yes, we do.
All right, and there's several ways you can serve ceviche.
You can either put it like the traditional way
is on a tostada, so I've got these crunchy tostadas.
You can make your own or buy them from the store
and then just load it up.
And I do like to let the extra juice strain off
so the tostada stays crispy and crunchy,
and just load up your tostada.
And for me, it's a must, some hot sauce.
And you can pick your favorite hot sauce.
Here's our favorites.
And we just use whatever we have in the fridge, honestly.
And just little tiny drizzle, maybe a douse of hot sauce.
I love spicy, as you can tell.
All right, and then from here, we just take a bite.
It's like a big giant tortilla chip.
I find this a little bit harder to eat than with chips,
but it's still fun.
It's an adventure, as food should be.
Okay, here we go, right into the taste test.
(upbeat music)
This is my moment.
I worked for this, okay?
I worked for this.
It's so good.
You can really, just that fresh lime juice.
Oh, it is so much flavor.
I love how that lime juice just penetrates everything
and makes everything so fresh and vibrant.
And then it's got all the fresh veggies.
So this is a meal in itself.
I mean, it's loaded with cucumber, avocado, tomato, onion,
and some protein from the shrimp, of course.
So this is how my husband and I love it the most.
Load it into a bowl, pile it high.
Remember, this is a serving for two.
Just kidding, it's only for us.
I don't know if I can recommend that.
All right, just when you think it's enough,
add a little bit more and then you're good.
It's so good.
Okay.
And of course, hot sauce.
Hot sauce, my love language.
And tortilla chips.
Now, my personal favorite tortilla chips
are the organic ones from Costco.
I wanna know in the comments, what are your favorites?
Maybe you have a recommend for me.
A little bit of everything, a lot of bit of everything.
(upbeat music)
10 outta 10, highly recommend.
If you guys are looking for more appetizer recipes,
one of our all-time favorites is right over there.
Make sure you check that out, and we'll see you
on the next episode of natashaskitchen.com.
Plus, let me know where you spotted Sharky in the video.
I think we had him hidden pretty well today.
All right, it is ceviche time.
We'll see you later.