Ceviche!!!

Ceviche made easy and healthy!

This really is an easy dish to make and the ingredients are so healthy for you. 

Start with the tomatoes, approximately 2 large or 5 medium small ones.  Personally, I like the ones that come in the clear plastic "clam shell" containers, and the stem is still attached to the tomato.  They taste most like the tomatoes in my deck garden.

Cut the tomatoes from the top, to the bottom.  This keeps the "meat" inside from oozing out.  Remove the "meat" (seed area of the tomato) and place in a small dish to be used with pasta or other dish.

Dice the remaining outer area of the tomato and place in a quart sized bowl or a little larger.  The bowl needs to be deep, not wide.  Chop a small red onion, or 1/2 of a large one in to fine pieces (just smaller than the tomato as seen above).  Place it in the bowl with the tomatoes. 

Using fresh, clean, cilantro, dice approximately 1/8 of a cup and place it in the bowl with the other ingredients.

Thaw and thoroughly rinse one bag of shrimp with the tails and shell removed, in a colander and leave in the sink to drain.

While the shrimp is draining, squeeze 2 cups of lime juice or enough to cover all ingredients in the bowl (including the shrimp that will be chopped and placed in the mixture).  Do not use store bought pre-squeezed, lime juice.  The results are not the same.

Once the shrimp is drained, slice the shrimp in half lengthwise, then cut to about 1/2 inch slices.  They should be roughly the size of your thumb nail.  Place these in the bowl with the tomatoes and other ingredients. 

Add 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp of chili powder, depending on how spicy you would like it, to the mixture in the bowl. Do not add salt or pepper.

Add enough lime juice to cover the shrimp and diced vegetables, mix thoroughly, then place it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, stirring once after 10 minutes to insure all the ingredients are getting the full benefit of the lime juice.  At this point, the lime juice is "cooking" the shrimp.  You can use pre-cooked shrimp, however for the best results, use uncooked to make this recipe.

Serve in the same bowl, put it in a fancy bowl, or do as I did... place two medium sized, clean, cabbage leaves together with the stems overlapping, to form a bowl.  Place one more under the two and place this all in a cereal or soup bowl.  Add your ceviche a spoonful at a time at first, then pour the rest into the leaf bowl and garnish as you like. 

We like to eat ours on tortilla chips with mayonnaise (as we were taught to do in Cabo San Lucas).  A little hot sauce if you like can be added on top of each chip, and yum.. something awesome. 

Hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do.  Of course we had tequila with ours.  Margaritas are naturally the best with this kind of mexican food.