Stolen Inspiration: Chipotle Poached Shrimp Tacos

Chipotle Poached Shrimp Tacos

I find that inspiration for new dishes comes from a multitude of sources: childhood memories, fantastic restaurant meals, conversation with friends, bizarre dreams (yes, it’s true – I do dream about cooking from time to time), etc. But I think the most often used source of inspiration comes from the plethora of cooking and travel shows with which I seem to fill my television-viewing time.

The local PBS station has added an additional HD channel to its line-up called Create. It’s full of familiar PBS programs that show you how to build, garden, paint, sew, travel, and cook. The travel hosts are these intrepid globe trekkers hopping from country to country, showing us not only the history, art, and architecture of each place, but also the unique cuisine of the region (always makes me alternate from cringing to salivating as I see what they eat). One recent afternoon, sandwiched between trips to London and Paris, was a repeat of America’s Test Kitchen, which was tackling Mexican food. Don and I both stopped in our tracks as we watched them work their magic on chicken tacos. They came up with a preparation that I knew I needed to steal pay homage to in a recipe.
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Recipe:

Chipotle Poached Shrimp Tacos

Not Quite Cinco de Mayo, But Close Enough for Shrimp and Mango Ceviche

So I know this week is supposed to celebrate the Mexican battle victory, and that you usually see a bevy of authentic Mexican foods on May 5th, but I didn’t feel like actually heating up the kitchen with the stove (it’s just too hot outside). So I broadened the definition of ‘Mexican food’ to include some other Latin cuisines. What I ended up with was Shrimp and Mango Ceviche and a side of Black Bean Salad for Cuatro de Mayo (sorry, but I have to work on the 5th).

After looking through the freezer, I had narrowed the ceviche choices down to either shrimp or tilapia (I didn’t think that salmon ceviche sounded all that appetizing – and even less authentic than the ceviche concept itself). I think the tilapia would have worked fine, but settled on the shrimp because I thought it would retain its shape better in the citrus juice. By the time I had it plated, it looked much more expensive than the 6 bucks I spent on four servings – and more importantly, it tasted like more than $6.

The black beans were a nice compliment to the sharpness of the ceviche. I purposely used less dressing with the beans than I would normally in a salad – just because I knew the ceviche would be so sharp to begin with.

Of course, if money weren’t an issue, I probably would have used sushi-grade tuna instead, but for farm raised and frozen, the shrimp was OK. You just have to be really careful when you’re eating raw fish – you don’t want to take any chances. I mean, if you’re going to be sick on Cinco de Mayo, then it should be because of the excess of Coronas you drank, right?