Shrimp Ceviche is a delicious dish. The word ceviche means "raw seafood" marinated in fresh lemon or lime juice. Marinating is done instead of cooking and the strong acidity of the lemon or lime juice makes the product free of live microrganisms and thus safe to eat, as well as very tasty. Think of the improved texture of the seafood by avoiding typical cooking.
You will note there is some minimal cooking time in this recipe to blanch the pound of whole shrimp, and a full hour of marinating time in fresh lemon juice for the chopped/diced pieces, which is typically used instead of cooking for small pieces of raw seafood like diced fish, diced shrimp or sliced scallops. You might consider the atypical blanching in this recipe as a safety play to sterilize the shrimp and assure all surfaces of the pieces are not raw. It is up to you to decide whether or not to blanch the shrimp in boiling water, for any exposure to boiling water will change the texture of the surface of the shrimp.
Recently I was served shrimp ceviche at an upscale Mexican restaurant and it tasted so hot due to the amount of diced habanero pepper that I could barely eat it. Thus, it was not at all enjoyable, and I am noting that fact now for your use in likely modifying this recipe to avoid too much very hot pepper. I further note that I have had shrimp and other seafood ceviches in multiple restaurants in the past and none of them had any noticeable use of hot peppers ... so feel free to omit that ingredient partially or completely in this recipe. You might, however, use a tasty mild pepper (like diced poblano) for maintaining the taste contribution of fresh pepper and the appearance and texture of the ceviche. If you want low heat use a jalapeno pepper. For medium heat use a serrano pepper. For high heat use the habanero pepper.
Ceviche is usually served well chilled along with some crackers and butter or tortilla chips or tostados and chilled white wine. Small servings of it in chilled champagne flutes or goblets will commonly be the appetizer for an upscale lunch or dinner. It can also be served in larger quantity (1 1/2 to 2 cups) as an entree on a chilled plate.
Ingredients: (Makes more than a quart of ceviche)
1 pound of black tiger shrimp, tail-on
3/4 cup of fresh lemon juice or lime juice or a mixture of both
1 medium sweet onion, diced small
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro (finely chopped and pressed lightly into the 1/2 cup container)
3 medium size ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced small
1 medium size cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 habanero pepper, cleaned and finely diced ...or a less hot pepper like serrano, or even less, jalapeno, or no hot pepper at all
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon of sea salt, and maybe more, to taste, at serving time
1 tbsp. of olive oil
Crackers and butter or tortilla chips as accompaniments at serving time
Directions:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add the shrimp and blanch them just until they turn a light pink, about 1 minute. Drain immediately and place the shrimp in an ice bath to chill them and stop the cooking process.
Peel and chop/dice each piece of the shrimp into about six pieces and place the pieces in a one quart bowl. Toss the shrimp with the lemon juice and set the bowl aside, covered, for about 1 hour to marinate the shrimp, stirring occasionally to assure all surfaces are well exposed to the lemon juice.
While the shrimp is marinating, dice the onion, cilantro, tomatoes, cucumber and habanero (or serrano or jalapeno or poblano) pepper, and put them and the olive oil into a two quart bowl. Be certain to wear nitrile or latex gloves when handling/cleaning/dicing any hot peppers, and do not touch your eyes or private parts until the gloves have been discarded and you have washed your hands. Mix the bowl contents gently with a wooden spoon and then refrigerate the mixture, covered.
After the shrimp has marinated (it should be whitish-pink and firm throughout), spoon out and drain the shrimp in a sieve or colander, reserving the bowl of lemon juice.
Cover the bowl of reserved lemon juice with plastic wrap and put it into the refrigerator.
Add the shrimp to the chilled two quart bowl. Stir in the cumin, pepper, oregano and garlic powder, and season with only one-fourth teaspoon of sea salt.
Put the ceviche into a one gallon Ziploc® freezer bag, expelling all the air, then seal the bag and refrigerate/chill the ceviche for up to four hours prior to serving it.
Taste the ceviche, and add a small amount of the reserved lemon juice to brighten the flavors to best please your palate.
If desired, season the ceviche again with salt and/or ground black pepper.
Serve the ceviche in chilled glass goblets or champagne flutes, along with small appetizer forks. Or, you can serve the ceviche as an entree on chilled plates.
Serve a variety of crackers and butter or tortilla chips or tostados and provide a bottle of a nice, chilled Pinot Grigio wine.
Enjoy!