Coconut Ceviche
I had dinner at Gracias Madre this weekend in Weho. It's such a fun and lively spot on the weekend! It also has a very beautiful outdoor patio for al fresco dining. When I used to be a vegetarian, this was one of my favorite spots. Even though I eat meat now, I love my veggies and I still enjoy going to vegetarian restaurants that offer creative twists on traditionally meat-based meals. One of the dishes I had there this weekend was their Coconut Ceviche. I enjoyed it but I thought it could use a little more citrus and fruit. This inspired me to create my own coconut ceviche this week. In my recipe, I used mango, corn, diced grapes, red onion, and cilantro. I combined lime, lemon, and tangerine juices. I also served my ceviche with plantain chips instead of tortilla chips. My only challenge was that I didn't have fresh coconut meat. And I was too lazy to search for it, so I settled on frozen coconut meat from Trader Joe's, which I soaked in warm water to defrost. I have to admit, the ceviche would have probably worked better with fresh coconut meat. The coconut meat was a little too hard. But I guess that could still be an issue with fresh coconut as well. I also think the ceviche could be good even without the coconut actually! Although, in that case, it's really more like a mango salsa. Oh well. I tried! This was a fun experiment though. My recipe is below if you want to give it a shot! Or you could use cooked shrimp instead of coconut meat.
Coconut Ceviche (Serves 4)
· 1½ cup coconut meat, cube or sliced
· 1 cup of mango, cubed
· ½ cup of red grapes, diced
· ½ cup of corn (from the can is ok)
· ¼ cup of red onion, finely diced
· ½ cup of cilantro, diced
· ½ cup of lime juice
· ¼ cup of lemon juice
· ¼ cup tangerine juice or orange juice
· 1 tsp sugar
· dash of salt and pepper
Mix the above ingredients in a large bowl and let sit in the fridge for at least an hour before serving. Serve with tortilla or plantain chips.