Scallop Ceviche

Since I discovered ceviche and the freshest of scallops during my trip to Peru in July, I've counted them among my favorite foods. I finally dared mix my own ceviche and it turned out well! The only thing really lacking is a coastline in Dallas to pull this stuff to my table fresher.

The scallops in this recipe may be replaced with any cubed raw fish or seafood. In Peru, the dish might be served with thinly sliced fish after a few minutes of marination. This is fine for sushi grade seafood you would be comfortable eating raw. Otherwise, count on 4 hours of marination time to fully cook the seafood in citric acids.

Without access to the Peruvian ingredients I would have liked, such as aji amarillo and the precise purple shallot popular in Peruvian ceviche, I made some decent substitutions.

1/2 lb medium scallops, halved
2 roasted garlic cloves, mashed into a paste
Juice of 4 limes
Red and green jalepeno, diced
Cilantro
Small red onion or shallot to taste

Marinate scallops, garlic and lime juice with jalepeno for at least 4 hours. Drain excessive liquid, add cilantro, small red onion or shallot and a fresh squeeze of lime juice. Serve.

Carrot Beet Soup

This beautiful and delicious Mexican-fusion vegetable soup is plain sweet! My mother, my roommate Jessica and friends Sonya and Mike all compliment my good beet soup. Do not neglect the final toppings of crumbled goat cheese, cilantro, lime, salt and black pepper, which perfectly enrich and finish this mild soup.

2 medium-sized roasted beets
8 medium-large carrots
1 large leek, white part only
1 yellow onion
5 cups vegetable broth
Lime juice
Olive oil

Serve with goat cheese, cilantro, coarsely ground salt and pepper and a slice of lime.

Roast the beets until soft throughout.

Meanwhile, peel and coarsely chop the carrots. Coarsely chop the leek and onion. In a large soup pot on medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the carrot, leek and onion. Coat with olive oil and cover to sweat for 10 minutes, tossing once or twice.

Continue to cook on medium heat. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a slow boil for 20 minutes or until carrots are well softened.



Add carrot mixture and beets to food processor. (My food processor is small, so I have to do multiple, multicolored batches; hence the pretty picture above.) Puree until smooth and return to stovetop. Add juice of half a lime and reheat before serving.

Top with crumbled goat cheese, cilantro and coarsely ground salt and pepper. Serve with a slice of lime.

Spicy Tacos

So its been awhile, but I should really pick this up again. And I recently saw Julie and Julia and am inspired to accomplish something outside my workday.

Today I made my favorite beef taco recipe. The spicy ground meat improves reheated after a day (or a few) in the fridge, so I typically make a huge batch and eat it for a week!

Although Ive never comparatively tested the results, I vary my ingredients hoping for a complex flavor. For example, I use three kinds of sweetning (white sugar, brown sugar and honey), two kinds of onion and two kinds of spice (jalepeno and dried chili). If you dont have every variation, just skip it! Use one sweetner, whatever onion and jalepeno is a must. I use canned tomato because its far cheaper (and easier) than fresh tomato, and I highly recommend Cento Italian Peeled tomatos.

Guestimating this recipe makes about 24 small tacos. (Serves 6, or 1 all week long...)

5 jalepenos
3/4 garlic clove
1 medium yellow onion
1 shallot

Heat saucepan to high/medium. Quarter the onion and half the shallot. Leave the skins on the onion, shallot and garlic. Separate the garlic cloves. Leave the jalepeno whole. Roast ingredients 5-10 minutes, skins may be burnt. Pieces should be softened throughout.

When sufficiently cool, remove garlic and onion skins and remove tough stem and root parts. Remove jalepeno stem. Add to food processor with following ingredients:

1 bunch cilantro
Small handful fresh oregano
Dried chilis (may be softened in hot water)
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
24 oz can Cento Italian Peeled Tomatos
Juice of 2 large limes
2 tsp white sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp salt

Process to make a nice salsa texture and place in large saucepan on medium/low heat. The salsa should simmer for at least 15 minutes.

3 lbs ground chuck

In large pot, brown the beef on medium heat. When brown, strain out the juice and return to pot. Spoon in the salsa mixture. The mix should be mostly meat without too much sauce (its not spaghetti, its taco meat!) If you have extra sauce, cool it and eat with chips!

The meat should simmer for at least an additional 10 minutes. The mixture will improve, loosing liquid, thickening and gaining flavor, with longer simmering.

At this stage the meat may be refrigerated for a later meal.

Serve with:

Small yellow corn tortillas
Shredded "Mexican" cheese
Small diced jalepeno
Cilantro
Lime