CEVICHE DE VIERIAS (scallop ceviche, for four)

a china or glass bowl

1 pound bay scallops (cooked shrimp, crabmeat, or mackeral or sierra fillets can be substituted or added if preferred) or 8 to 10 large fresh sea scallops

juice of 6 to 7 large limes (1-1/4 to 1-1/2 cups)

2 medium, ripe tomatoes (about 12 ounces)

3 or 4 canned chiles serranos en escabeche

¼ cup olive oil

½ teaspoon oregano

½ teaspoon salt, or to taste

freshly ground black pepper

1 small avocado

1 small onion, sliced into rings

a little finely chopped coriander (optional)

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1. Wash and drain scallops to remove possible sand. If you are using sea scallops, dip a sharp knife in cold water for each cut, and slice them crosswise (across the grain) into pieces 3/16” thick. Bay scallops do not need to be trimmed.  Cover the scallops with the lime juice.  Set aside in the bottom of the refrigerator for at least 5 hours, or until the scallops lose their transparent look and become opaque.  Stir the pieces from time to time so that they are evenly “cooked” in the juice.  Pour off almost all of the lime juice after five hours.

2. While the scallops are marinating, skin, seed and chop the tomatoes and put them into a medium bowl.  Chop the chiles with their seeds, and add them to the tomatoes along with the olive oil, salt, pepper and scallops.  Stir, cover with plastic wrap and set the ceviche aside in the bottom of the refrigerator for at least 1 hour to season (you should serve it chilled, but not so cold that the oil congeals).

3. Before serving, garnish each portion of bay scallop ceviche with slices of avocado and onion rings and sprinkle with at little chopped coriander, if desired. If you are using sea scallops, create a rosette of scallop slices with half a cherry tomato in the center, and intersperse avocado and onion rings with the scallop slices in the rosette.

 

from Diana Kennedy, The Cuisines of Mexico