Ok I'm going to apologize to my mother in law right up front I'm sorry Jeanne. This article will reveal a cooking method that she certainly wouldn't consider cooked. I've become the type of guy that folks generally don't ask...they just taste. Coming up will be a delectable shrimp ceviche recipe...with a wimp clause.
I was still very young when my father's mother passed. She was a brilliant chef. I remember I was about ten when I experienced my first ten-boy curry. Her béarnaise was the stuff of legend. I go to steak houses, and I often order it on the side, and am invariably disappointed.
She was a tough woman. One of the heavy prongs on her engagement ring had a serious bend to it. She was a teacher, and the legend is that she used the back of her hand to correct the children in her class. Though I'm sure that her bending her ring on the back of a child's head is simply family legend I imagine she ran a tight ship.
She was also a proper woman. She married a doctor; my grandfather and they threw parties, legendary parties. The story that's precious to me. The story that's precious to my family is that back in the 40's and 50's it was improper to express affection in public, even verbally, even between man and wife. My Grandfather and Grandmother would flash signs at each other across wide expansive living rooms draped in Persian rugs and finery. Three fingers meant I love you, and my family still uses three fingers today.
There is a controversy, a sense of the improper in this recipe as well, and if you're able to bend the rules and flash signs across a stuffy party, I'll show you the way. Now if it doesn't feel right, then I'll show you a way as well.
At the core of this controversy is the shrimp itself. Gather the following:
1/2 # shrimp (I like big ones that I cut up, but small are acceptable.)
1 ripe Avocado
1 Small Tomato
Mexican Hot Sauce
1 small white or red onion
Cilantro
Lime (quite a few)
Cucumber
Saltines
Peel the shrimp. If they aren't deveined do that now as well. Put the peeled and deveined shrimp in a bowl. Add limejuice until they are covered, and place the bowl in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until the shrimp are opaque.
Dice onion, cucumber, tomato and Avocado. Mix it all into a bowl. Add the now cooked shrimp. Cut them up if they’re big. They need to fit gingerly on a cracker. Add salt and hot sauce and more lime juice to taste. Serve with more hot sauce and crackers.
Delicate Sensibilities Clause (or wimp clause)- Boil the shrimp like in the recipe Late Summer Prawns. Remove the shells and proceed according to this path.