Ceviche, Ika Mata or Poisson Cru?!

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mmm....ceviche!
everyone has their own way of making it but this is how my mon makes it. It's a ceviche "coctel" or cocktail.

1.First she takes the raw shrimp and cuts the heads off,
peels them and then she slices them open so she can gutt out all the "stuff" it has inside
some people dont do this cause it's probably the most tedious step. Your choice, but I will say that if you do fillet them open, it will help the lemon cook them faster with more flavor.

2. Put the shrimp in a nice sized bowl and add plenty of lemon juice.
By pleanty I mean that when your shrimp are evenly scattered. at least the bottom half of the shrimp should be submerged in the juice. You can add more to your liking at anystep of the way.

3.If your going to want crab meat or imitation crab meat in your ceviche now is the time to add it in the bowl along with the shrimp. After about 20 minutes you should stir the shrimp and crab around to make sure it gets evenly cooked. Then keep in the fridge for about 20 min.

4. while thats in the fridge you will need to dice or chop the following ingredients to your liking

tomatoes
cucumbers
onions
cilantro
green chili peppers (I would recomend no more than two)
avacodoes

5. Remove the bowl from the fridge and add all your chopped ingrdients

6. Add V8 or Clamato tomato juice. Depending on how full your bowl is looking you might need anywhere from 2 to 4 bottles. It should look like a cold soup.

7. Add your favorite bottled hot sauce to the bowl. We use "tapatio" hot sauce.

8. Some recipies call for canned tomato paste. My mom just squirts in some heinz ketchup it works just fine. But you only need like one or two good squeezes of this. Add yes it does need it, without it, it just doesn't taste the same, i think it's the vinegar in the ketchup that makes a difference.

7 The last step is to season everything with salt and pepper. My mom doesn't add pepper but I usually add it to my plate cause I like it. Remember that this is suppose to be an acidic dish so it should taste like a lemony/tomatoey soup.

you can eat it from a bowl like a cold soup. Or you could scoop out shrimp and whatever else you like from the bowl and put on a tostada and eat it like that. I like both ways.

***Here is a picture I found that most closely resembles what it should look like:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cevich…

ceviche the best i do not prepare it i go to restaurant