A shrimp aguachile.Alexander Suastegui
“Hello, does anyone have the recipe for the shrimp aguachile? Diosss it’s awesome, I discovered it on this recent trip to Mexico and it would be a dream to learn, is it difficult? The message, posted on Twitter, turned on social media in Mexico on Tuesday. Within minutes, Rosalía received an endless list of aguachile recipes. Some included ingredients like a clove of garlic, something not common in this dish.
Hello, does anyone have the recipe for the shrimp aguachile? Godssss, it’s delicious. I discovered it on this recent trip to Mexico and it would be a dream to learn. It is difficult?
💚🍋🥑🍤— ROSALIA (@rosalia) April 4, 2023
Aguachile is a dish that western-born Mexicans love and defend because there’s always someone who says, “It’s like a ceviche, isn’t it?” No, it’s not like a ceviche. This delicacy of almost raw shrimp seasoned with chili, lime, salt and pepper, topped with some sliced cucumber and filleted red onion, is a lot easier than ceviche. It seems easy to prepare, but there are certain key details that make it unique or turn it into a terrible and watery mush with a sour taste that’s impossible to eat.
Three chefs specializing in seafood advise the singer
Tomás Bermúdez, chef and partner at La Docena, originally from Guadalajara, is no purist and believes the recipe can vary. “I know so many, like the cilantro serrano chilli aguachile, the black sauce one, one with hot sauce and lemon, or the tatemado from La Docena.” This chef’s toasted aguachile is quirky because the dressing is toasted or toasted contains green tomatoes, which gives it an incomparable smoky note. For Bermúdez, there’s only one rule: “The base is spicy,” but he explains that “Aguachile isn’t all shrimp: The one with scallops is crazy, with those Sonoran tripe that look like you’re biting an apple.” .” . Of course, if it is made with shrimp, these must be used in the butterfly cut. For clarity, they are bisected along the back and joined through the belly, simulating the shape of this butterfly.
Chef Alexander Suastegui specializes in the gastronomy of northeastern Mexico. She believes an aguachile can spoil “if the acidity, salt and spiciness aren’t well balanced.” Suastegui recently opened Costela in the Mexican capital, a laid-back restaurant where he has his own version of this dish. “I really like making black aguachile. It has a black chiltepin sauce, Sinaloan blue shrimp [de pesca sostenible], cucumber, red onion, a hint of olive oil and coriander”. Chiltepin is one of the mandatory ingredients in Aguachile. It is a common chili in various parts of Latin America, but it is indispensable in the gastronomy of several northern states of Mexico: it is the shape and size of a pea, green when young but generally consumed when it has reached maturity and turns red. And be careful, it’s super spicy!
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It’s unknown which version Rosalía tried, but there are three common versions: the green aguachile, which usually contains serrano chili and coriander; red, the most traditional because it contains chiltepin, which gives it its red color; and the black one, which is usually very, very, very spicy – and a Mexican says so – and to which maggi or English sauce and habanero peppers are sometimes added.
Both Suastegui and Bermúdez remind that shrimp must be fresh and of very good quality, this is important because seafood is eaten practically raw and a good product guarantees not having to go to the emergency room. The good shrimp in particular indicate the origin of the dish. Both chefs point out that the Aguachile was created in Sinaloa, a Mexican state on the Pacific coast better known as El Chapo but with one of the tastiest cuisines in the country.
Key of the Aguachile
Aguachile carries one of its key qualities in its name: the seafood is marinated in a lemon-chili aguita that makes everyone salivate. And maybe this little water reveals its origin. Alex Zárate is the executive chef at Campobaja, a Baja California-style seafood restaurant, and confirms, “This dish was originally eaten by the indigenous communities of the Northeast, but instead of using shellfish and lemon, they included shredded venison cooked in water touch of chiltepin”.
For an aguachile to be delicious, the shrimp must be crispy when you bite into it, and that can only be achieved if you do it right away. And another infallible proof that aguachile is delicious is that you won’t take the dish away from them until you’ve tasted every last drop of this flavorful aguita. Zárate says the best he tasted in his life came from Sonora and Sinaloa, “both of which blew my brains out”; Suastegui remembers one he ate in Sonora “at a place called Mariscos La Torre 2”; And to even the scales, Bermúdez believes there are no better aguachiles than those from the seafood carts of Culiacán and Los Mochis, both Sinaloa cities.
Rosalía mentioned a “Godssss, it’s great,” but Bermúdez goes a little further and says this dish has an almost magical quality: “What’s special about an aguachile is the feeling of healing your pain with the first bite as it covers it taste and texture; it’s acidic, flavorful and rich.”
Alex Zárate’s Aguachile recipe
Ingredients
- Butterfly cut blue shrimp 21/25
- purple onion in pen
- Thinly sliced Persian cucumber
- Green lemon juice (the little one with seeds)
- lots of pepper
- chiltepin
- sea-salt
- Cut some cilantro into strips
instructions
1. How is it prepared?
Mix everything and eat immediately.