Colombian Shrimp Ceviche
Cartagena-style ceviche de camarones: poached shrimp in lime with red onion, cilantro and the classic creamy pink sauce. Served ice cold with crackers.
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total
- 30 min
- serves
- 4
- level
- easy
Colombian ceviche is its own thing. On the Caribbean coast, especially in Cartagena, the shrimp are quickly poached rather than raw, and the lime is joined by a little ketchup and mayonnaise into a pink, faintly sweet sauce that sounds wrong and tastes completely right.
It is sold in plastic cups on the street with a sleeve of saltine crackers, and that is exactly how it should be eaten at home: ice cold, with something crunchy.
Ceviche is number 8 on our list of the top 20 famous Colombian foods.
method
Drop the shrimp into well-salted boiling water for 60 to 90 seconds, just until pink, then straight into ice water. Drain and, if large, halve them.
Soak the chopped onion in the lime juice for 10 minutes to take off its raw edge.
Stir together the shrimp, onion and lime juice, ketchup, mayonnaise, hot sauce and most of the cilantro. Season with salt.
Chill for at least 30 minutes so the flavors come together and the ceviche is properly cold.
Serve in glasses or small bowls with the remaining cilantro on top, crackers on the side and extra lime.
chef's tips
- Pull the shrimp out the moment they turn pink. They keep firming up in the lime juice afterward.
- Chill everything, even the serving glasses. This dish lives and dies by temperature.
- Street vendors add a spoonful of the shrimp poaching water to the sauce. It rounds out the flavor; try it.