First recipe!!

These past couple of days have been difficult to cook. The highs have been over 100* and the thought of turning on a stove or an oven is just unappealing. Last night, when we were driving home, Carlos turned to me and asked what was for dinner. "Dinner...um....take out....again?" He kind of let out a sigh and went quite. Not a good sign. So I thought what I could cook that didn't require me to turn on a stove or an oven. Salad? (Yuck...)....hhmmm...what else? Finally, Carlos turned to me and asked if we could have ceviche. Ceviche is "citrus- marinated seafood" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche). I thought about it for a second and thought that was a perfect "hot summer afternoon" dinner. I have also heard that its a good hang-over food, but I wouldn't know anything about that (or at least that I can remember!) So I thought that I would make ceviche my first recipe!!

CEVICHE

INGREDIENTS: 

1 cucumber 

1 onion

1 tomato

1 bunch of  fresh cilantro (CANNOT BE DRIED)

1 avocado

1 lb of medium size cooked, peeled and tail removed shirt

1 lb of imitation lobster, chunk style

Lemon Juice

Lime Juice

Salt

Pepper

Tortilla Chips

OPTIONAL: 1 Jalapeno pepper

KITCHEN ITEMS:

1 cutting boards

1 vegetable peelers

Sharp Knife

LARGE PLASTIC bowl (cannot be metal)

PREPARATION TIME: About 15 minutes

"COOKING" TIME: Between 1 and 4 hours

SERVING SIZE: Between 6 and 8 people

(I would have included some pictures, but my point and shoot camera FINALLY bit the dust. I won't turn on, no matter how much I charge the battery, hit the reset button, do everything I can. It's MUERTO)

Step 1: Peel and cut the cucumber into bite size piece. (Ceviche is chunky, so it doesn't have to be a super fine cut, but it should be a small bite size piece.) I also take the seeds out of my cucumbers. Just peel and cut the cucumber into 4th length wise. With the cucumber laying flat on the cutting board and one hand on the top of the cucumber, gently slide the knife down the cucumber, removing the seeds. Make sure to do this slowly, or you can really hurt yourself!!

Step 2: Cut the onion into small bite size piece. The key is consistency. You want all of the pieces of the different vegetables to be about the same size. 

Step 3: Cut the tomato. Again, CONSISTENCY!!

(Step 3.5: If you are adding the jalapeno, this would be the time to remove the ribs and seeds of the jalapeno and cut it up into fine pieces.)

Step 4: After you are finished adding all of the vegetables, mix everything together. 

Step 5: I bought precooked shrimp, and I peeled the tail off myself. Cut the shrimp into bite size pieces. I cut the medium size shrimp into thirds. 

Step 6: Add the imitation lobster. Make sure to break up the chunks. 

Step 7: Break the stems off of the bottom of the cilantro. Finely dice the cilantro. This you will want in small pieces because a large piece of cilantro doesn't taste too good!!

Step 8: Mix everything together. Then add about a half a cup of each lemon and lime juice. It should look like you added too much liquid. Then add about 1 tsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp of pepper. 

Step 9: You will need to refrigerate the mixture for between 1 and 4 hours. 

Step 10: If you are planning on eating all of the ceviche at one time, cut an avacado up into bite size pieces and add to the mixture. If you are not planning on eating all of it at one time, I would cut up enough avocado just to serve it on the side. 

This can be served on either a crunchy flat tostada with some lettuce or it can be served with tortilla chips as a dip.

This can be enjoyed for up to 3 days!

This is one of my favorite summer meals. I hope everyone enjoys!!