Ecuadorian ceviche

Ingredients

• Prawns — shell-on900 g
• Red onions3
• Limes8
• Orange2
• Tomatoes4
• Ketchup4 tbsp
• Mustard1 tbsp
• Coriander50 g
• Chilli1
• Popcorn — to serve100 g
• Plantain crisps — to serve150 g
• Vegetable oil40 ml
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Peel the prawns, boil the shells in a litre of water for twenty minutes and strain the broth.

   27 min

2. 2

   Poach the prawns in that broth for exactly two minutes and drop them straight into iced water.

   8 min

3. 3

   Chill the broth completely; it becomes the base of the dressing.

   30 min

4. 4

   Slice the red onion thin, rinse it in cold water and cure it in lime juice with salt.

   15 min

5. 5

   Blend two tomatoes to a purée and mix it with the ketchup, mustard, orange juice and the cold broth.

   10 min

6. 6

   Combine the prawns, cured onion, chopped tomatoes and the dressing.

   6 min

7. 7

   Chill it an hour, stir in the coriander and serve with popcorn and plantain crisps.

   8 min

About the dish

Ecuadorian ceviche comes with broth, unlike the Peruvian. The prawns are poached, their liquid chilled and made the base of the sauce — that is the fundamental difference between the two traditions.

Ketchup in the dressing is canon rather than carelessness. It gives sweetness and colour, and without it Ecuadorian ceviche stops being recognisable.

It is served with popcorn and plantain crisps, crumbled straight into the bowl. Crunch against a liquid ceviche does what croutons do in soup.

Worth knowing

• — The prawns poach for exactly two minutes. Even three turns them rubbery, and in a cold ceviche that is particularly obvious.
• — Rinse the onion after slicing. That removes the harshness and it stays crisp without burying the prawns.
• — Ceviche is eaten with a spoon, like a cold soup. There should be enough broth to cover the prawns in the bowl.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

420 kcal

Protein

40 g

Fat

12 g

Carbs

38 g

More from Ecuador

• Encebollado — A tuna soup with cassava and pickled onion. Ecuadorians eat it for breakfast and treat it as a hangover cure.
• Llapingachos — Potato cakes with cheese inside, fried in achiote oil and served with a peanut sauce.
• Fanesca — The Holy Week soup of twelve grains and pulses with salt cod.