I love raw seafood; I love spicy, sour, and tart things; and I love herbs and cucumbers.
So it’s no surprise that long ago when I first ventured to coastal Mexico, I fell in love with aguachile, the dressing of seafood with “chile water.” I found a lot of success with recipes of varying kinds. Then I ate several aguachile dishes cooked by the brilliant Claudette Zapeda and I realized I knew nothing about the dish. Claudette is the queen of aguachile. I paid keen attention to her demos and, luckily, since she is a close friend, she parted with some of her secrets. The result is a perfect aguachile verde. – Andrew Zimmern
Recipe from The Blue Food Cookbook by Andrew Zimmern and Barton Seaver in collaboration with Fed By Blue. Order your copy now!
Scallop Aguachile
Ingredients
- 8 ounces tomatillos, chopped
- 1/2 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 1/3 cup chopped scallions
- 1 1/2 teaspoons honey
- 1 serrano chile, stemmed
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
- 1/4 cup lime juice (about 4 limes)
- 1/2 large English cucumber, chopped (about 1h cup)
- Salt
- 1 pound fresh jumbo dry-pack sea scallops, sliced across in half or thirds
- 1 teaspoon toasted fennel seeds
- 1 carrot, steamed and cooled, thinly sliced into rings (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 small Persian cucumber, thinly sliced into rings (about I cup)
- 1 shallot, thinly sliced into rings (about 1/4 cup)
- 1/2 cup mint leaves (from about 4 sprigs) and mint flowers if you have them
- 1/2 cup cilantro leaves (from about 4 sprigs)
- 1/2 cup of your favorite edible flowers
Instructions
Combine the tomatillos, cilantro, scallions, honey, chile, coconut water, lemon and lime juices, English cucumber, and salt to taste in a blender and blend until homogenous. Strain though a fine-mesh strainer or a strainer lined with cheesecloth and discard the solids. Season the liquid again as needed, then cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Place 4 to 5, ounces of aguachile into 4 ice-cold low-sided wide bowls. Divide the scallops among the bowls. Sprinkle each with the fennel seeds and salt. Arrange the carrot discs, Persian cucumber rings, and shallot rings around each bowl. Arrange the mint and cilantro leaves and flowers around the bowls. Serve immediately.
