Summer Ceviche Tostadas

Ceviche has been an "it" food for quite awhile now, but I never tire of this South American dish in summer. If you're too hot to stand over a hot barbecue, or are just in the mood for something light and fresh, try this citrus-marinated seafood salad.

The hot and humid evening decided our dinner menu for us: fresh gazpacho and ceviche tostadas. We made our ceviche with shrimp and scallops, but just about any seafood is delicious: octopus, red snapper or any white fish. One year went to Whidbey Island and dug up a couple of geoduck (not easy!) and made ceviche. What a delicacy!

Ceviche requires no cooking, just marinating. The citric acid of citrus fruits will cause the proteins of the seafood to become denatured, essentially pickling the fish. You want the seafood to "cook" at least 3 hours, but I've found if you cut the pieces small enough you can often get away with a 2-hour marination time. Just make sure the fish is no longer translucent in the center if you're not using sashimi-grade.

Dice the fish into 1/2 inch pieces (smaller for a quick cook) and place in a bowl.
Squeeze enough fresh lemon and lime juice to completely cover the fish.
Add 2-3 healthy pinches of Kosher salt, stir and refrigerate.
After about 2 hours I strained the ceviche and mixed in some diced red onion, avocado and fresh cilantro, and served on top of a toasted tortilla.

Fresh squeezed orange juice is also quite tasty to add to the marinade mixture!

Check out Angelfire.com's various ceviche recipes from Peruvian to Japanese.