Aguachile to Celebrate Summer

No hay fecha que no se cumpla, plazo que no se venza, ni deuda que no se pague.

This is an old Spanish saying which roughly translates as: time marches on, and the day we thought far on the horizon appears suddenly and irrevocably.

I've thought about this saying at different points in my life when eagerly awaited moments finally arrived. Yesterday was one of those moments and, if truth be told, it repeats itself punctually every year.  School ends and another fresh crop of students graduates and heads off into the world. My colleagues and I celebrate with mixed feelings as we watch our former students embark on new journeys.  They are wayward leaves thrown into the turbulent and haphazard river of life, hopefully well-prepared to bear the triumphs as well as the disappointments that will surely come their way. We teachers have done our job, given them the tools, taught them to, as my teacher friend from Maine always says, "begin with the end in mind."

My colleagues and I, needless to say, are now in a different mode. We still have meetings to attend but we are giddy (as we are every year) with the expectations of our summer leisure time. We laugh easily, we tell jokes, we are relaxed and at ease.  The stress is gone and we all talk of summer travel, of books we'll read.  I, for one, will be back to San Miguel de Allende, first with students and then on my own with my husband. What makes a summer in San Miguel so attractive is the temperate climate and laid-back character of the community, especially coming from the competitive atmosphere of Washington DC.

As I eagerly await my San Miguel summer, I make one of the dishes I regularly order at La Sirena Gorda in the center of town on calle Barranca. It's a type of ceviche common on the Pacific coast that is a much spicier version of regular ceviche. This is a perfect example of dishes you will only find in Mexico, exquisite in taste and low in calories.

So, the fecha (date) is here for you to try something new. The fecha at hand is the glorious beginning of the summer with all of its delights.

Aguachile for the beginning of summer

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Recipe Type: Appetiser

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Prep time: 15 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 lb small shrimp, deveined or small scallops


• 2 serrano chilies or 4 jalapeños, chopped roughly with stem removed


• 1/2 cup cilantro


• 1 teaspoon sea salt


• juice from 6 limes, approximately


• 1 cucumber, for garnish


• 1/2 small red onion, sliced thinly for garnish


• 1 sliced avocado for garnish

Instructions

1. Blend the chilies, cilantro, lime juice, and salt.


2. Pour onto the deveined shrimp and place in a bowl in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.


3. Peel and cut the cucumber into 4 strips and slice thinly.


4. Arrange the shrimp and the aguachile sauce on a place and garnish with the cucumbers, sliced red onion, and sliced avocado.


5. Add more salt if necessary.


6. Serve on good quality corn chips or tostadas.

Notes

Smaller shrimp work better in this recipe and if they are butterflied it results in a better texture because the lime works more quickly on the raw shrimp. This is a recipe that separates the men from the mice! Have a cold beer ready to put the fire out. Fire eaters, you will love this. The rest of you, and you know who you are, just remove some of the serranos from the recipe if you prefer.

Tacho's Ceviche

The summer of 1969 my best friend, Susan, and I decided to take a vacation to what was at that time a remote part of Mexico: Isla Mujeres, off the Yucatan peninsula. We had already experienced life away from home that year as college students in Houston. Working as waitresses to help defray our college expenses, we had heard about the island from other students who worked with us. So, on a shoestring budget, we embarked on our trip. Starting out in our hometown, Laredo, we set off on trains and buses, stopping in Monterrey, Mexico City and Merida.  We finally made it to Puerto Juarez where we took a ferry to Isla Mujeres. We were two 19-year-olds, mesmerized as we arrived by the sight of white, powdery sand, crystalline water and the smell of the sea. We played like children along the water's edge with a kaleidoscope of fish that surrounded us.

Walking along the beach one day, an old fisherman approached us.  I still remember his name: Tacho.  For a modest fee, Tacho offered to take us snorkeling. We accepted and found ourselves trying to dive for conch without much success because we couldn't hold our breath long enough. But the object of our desire lay tantalizingly clear below us, as we could see all the way to the bottom. For Tacho, age was not an obstacle.  He effortlessly dived and came up with conch. Then, he took us to another side of the island where he prepared a conch ceviche with the tomatoes, red onions, lime, serrano pepper and cilantro that he had brought along. Now, this was the first time either Susan or I had eaten real ceviche and it was nothing like the ceviche back in Laredo.  The ceviche back home consisted of tired, microscopic shrimp in a cocktail glass, doused with a little ketchup and lime juice. Nothing like the real thing I discovered on the beach that day...Funny how a song can resurrect such long-ago memories. Songs like Harry Nilsson's Everybody's Talkin' at Me remind me of the innocence of those years, of my youth and of that trip.

Nowadays, I wonder about that clear water, about the living coral. I wonder about the turtles and the fish that swam at our side.  I wonder whatever became of Tacho.

Anyway, this is how I've made ceviche for friends ever since then, although I always use tilapia or shrimp since conch is not widely available on the East Coast.

Tacho's Ceviche

Recipe Type: Appetizer

Author: Gilda Valdez Carbonaro

Ingredients

• 2 or 3 filets of tilapia


• 1 quart of cherry tomatoes cut in half or 1 large, ripe tomato, chopped


• 1 medium sized red onion, chopped


• 1 serrano pepper


• Sea salt


• 10 limes


• About 1 cup (or more) or cilantro, washed, dried, and chopped roughly

Instructions

1. Chop the tilapia into little pieces and put into a bowl where you will squeeze all the limes and add salt to taste.


2. Let it sit for ½ hour.


3. Add the chopped tomato, onion, finely minced pepper, and cilantro


4. Toss and serve in small bowls.


5. Taste for salt.