Last summer my wife and I went to Ecuador to meet up with some old friends of hers and have some down time. She was an exchange student there over 15 years ago and she had wanted to return for a long time.
Although we did not get to any cevicherÃas while we were there - we spent all of our time in the highlands of Quito and Riobamba - I've always wanted to try a fresh fish ceviche. When I suggested to her that we make a ceviche de pescado, she asked that we make a shrimp ceviche. If you don't know anything about ceviche, the fish is "cooked" in the acid of lime juice. With shrimp ceviche, the shrimp is cooked with heat and marinated in the lime juices. Being that Chicago is not really known for its fresh seafood, I agreed and we went the latter route.
Ceviche de Camarones
1 lb of shrimp
10 limes, juiced
2 roma tomatoes, seeded
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 orange bell pepper, chopped
red onion, sliced thin
finely chopped cilantro
If using raw shrimp, peel and de-vein. in a pot of boiling water, cook shrimp for 2 to 3 minutes or until slightly pink. remove from water and move to ice bath to stop cooking. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, cover and stick in a fridge for at least a 1/2 hour. The more you allow the flavors to interact, the better it will taste!
On the tomatoes, peppers, onion and cilantro - use however much or little you like. I used 2 tomatoes, a half of each pepper, two or three slices of onion and just small bit of cilantro. The cilantro tends to overpower the other flavors, so I didn't want too much.
