It’s finally here! OMG I can’t wait to use it. It’s a beautiful thing, so well designed.

Since Selena’s, our local “authentic” Mexican restaurant doesn’t serve ceviche, I decided to make it myself. Oh man, it turned out great!

This ceviche is “cooked” by marinating the red snapper in lime juice. It never sees the oven or real heat. The citric acid in the lime juice causes the proteins in the seafood to become denatured, which pickles or “cooks” the fish without needing heat.

The sauce is a mixture of habanero and serrano chili peppers, garlic, and coconut milk, blended smooth in the blender. Then it is mixed with the marinated snapper, red and yellow bell peppers, chopped cilantro, and a handful of scallions.

This recipe is from the Rosa’s New Mexican Table: Friendly Recipes for Festive Meals cookbook that I picked up last week. It’s full of great looking recipes. I look forward to trying them all.

I had a few pieces of Mestemacher pumpernickel bread, a half-dozen scallops, and yesterdays salsa verde cruda left over. So I toasted the pumpernickel with a spicy orange sauce on top, peppered the scallops with ground chipotle and cumin (broiled them), and then topped it all with a dollop of green salsa (with a little extra orange sauce drizzle). It would have been better without the salsa, to be sure, but it made for a nice picture. Oh well, live and learn. You don’t know until you try.

BTW, Mestemacher Pumpernickel is the best pumpernickel, ever. Period.