New Years' Eve Ceviche

Ingredients for my version of Shrimp Ceviche--Recipe follows pics

Slice lemons and limes in half

Squeeze juice into bowl

Remove shells and devein shrimp--boil for one minute only

Place into iced water immediately--to stop cooking process

Slice-n-dice 

Add to citrus juice and refrigerate for 4 hours

Enjoy with freshly sliced avocado and tortilla chips
YUM-O!!!

For 2-3 hungry peeps...You'll need 1/2 pound of the FRESHEST jumbo shrimp (love those oxymorons), 3 limes and 1 1/2 lemons, one large shallot, 3-4 large radishes, two stalks celery, one clove garlic, 2-3 small roma tomatoes, 1/3 cucumber, one serrano or jalepeno chile pepper, 1/2 avocado, two tablespoons salt.

Recipe basics:

• Use a glass or stainless steel bowl to fix, mix, and store your ceviche creation.
• Raw shrimp can be purchased already cleaned and deveined. I choose shrimp that looks the freshest and is on sale--size doesn't matter too much (with shrimp anyways...)  Some folks just use the shrimp raw, expecting the citrus to do the "cooking".  Boiling the shrimp for 1-2 minutes helps to eliminate any evil bacteria trying to catch a ride.  Just make sure that you immediately dump the shrimp into an iced bath to stop the cooking process--rubbery shrimp is not a palate pleaser. 
• In this recipe, I prefer shallots to the white/yellow/red onions called for in other's ceviche.  
• Roma tomatoes have less liquid, more flavor, and keep their consistency longer than other varieties. 
• Serrano peppers are relatively mild.  Kick up the heat with jalepenos.  
• I like crunchy--hence the celery, radishes, cucumbers. 
• Garlic  and salt add "body" to the overall flavor.  
• Avocado smooths things out. 

SOOooo...add, subtract, multiply, divide...to find your perfect ceviche happiness.

...and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!