A desi touch to a Peruvian Shrimp Ceviche

I discovered ceviche while researching Peruvian cuisine for my daughter's Indiana Jones themed birthday party. I needed an entree from Peru, location of "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Its a fun salad with some of my favorite elements-seafood, avocado and lime juice. The only part I was not sure about was marinating the raw seafood in lime juice and serving it without cooking it. I am not a fan of raw seafood and hence stay miles away from sushi. So I cooked my shrimp sparingly.The shrimp ceviche was a big hit and I have decided to make it again for you today. Since Shrimp Ceviche recipes are available all over the web, I decided to take it as my inspiration and give it an Indian flavor.

The original Peruvian ceviche uses avocado. I decided to use guava instead.Guava brings bac fond meories of growing up in India. Our garden had 5 guava trees, including the one sprawling one in the backyard.I remember spending many Sunday afternoons perched on the guava tree with a bowl of salt and chilli powder to dip my guavas in. Guavas here cost $3+/lb and are extremely rare to find. They are usually have a softer crunchy interior or the pink one. I prefer mine to be white and crunchy and it gave quite a crunch to my ceviche recipe.

Ingredients:

20-30 raw shrimp

1 guava

1 pink onion

1 cucumber

2-3 green chillies

Juice from one large lime

2-3 sprigs of cilantro

2 tsp chaat masala

Salt and pepper to taste

• Clean and devein the shrimp and put them in boiling water still they turn orange in color.
• Cool the shrimp to room temperature and marinate it in the lime juice for 2 hours.
• Chop the cucumber, guava , pink onion, chillies and cilantro and combine it with the shrimp and the lime juice.
• Add salt, pepper and chaat masala to the salad.
• Chill and serve.

You can serve it as a salad on its own or with any rice dish. It goes best with the Mexican Arroz con Pollo(Chicken Rice). You can substitute avocado for the guava if you would like an authentic ceviche. The avocado adds a richness to the dish though it maybe high in calories.