Mexican Shrimp Ceviche
Serves 6-8
Ingredients:
- 1 Cup Lime Juice
- 1 Ea Red Onion Diced, Small
- 2/3 Cups Cilantro Chopped
- 1 Cup Red Pepper Ketchup (recipe below)
- ¼ Cup Hot Sauce
- ¼ Cup Olive Oil
- 2 Cups Jicama Diced, Small
- 2 Ea Avocado Diced, Small
- 2 lbs Shrimp Cleaned / Halved
- Tortilla Chips Garnish
- Blanch shrimp in boil / salted water until just opaque (about 1 min)
- Allow shrimp to cool on sheet pan
- Combine remaining ingredients and marinate for several hours
- Serve with tortilla chips
Red Pepper Ketchup Recipe
Yields about 3 cups
Ingredients:
- 8 ea Red Peppers - Diced
- 2 ea White Onions - Diced
- 4 ea Jalapeno - Chopped
- 2 ea Garlic Cloves - Chopped
- 3/4 Cup Red Wine Vinegar
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 4 Tbsp Oil
- Heat saute pan and add oil
- When oil is hot add peppers, onions, jalapenos, garlic and sweat until translucent (5 min)
- Add vinegar and sugar and allow to cook another 10 min on low heat until flavors come together
- Puree in blender until smooth
Bocanova
55 Webster St.
Oakland, CA 94607
Website: www.bocanova.com
About Ross Kaplan:
Ross Kaplan's path to the position of chef-de-cuisine at Bocanova, the exciting new Pan-American restaurant on Oakland's revitalized Jack London Square, began on the other side of the country.
After growing up in rural Columbia, Maryland, the young Kaplan began his cooking career at Manhattan's Union Square Café, under two legendary food-world figures: acclaimed restaurateur Danny Meyer and chef Michael Romano,named by the James Beard Foundation as "Best Chef in New York City."
Under their tutelage, he learned his way around a professional kitchen-but even more, he says, he learned "to appreciate and respect quality ingredients, and to understand that it's vitally important to produce the best food possible, because what the guest ingests becomes part of his or her body and soul."
By accident, he discovered Café Cacao, a small café attached to the Scharffenberger Chocolate factory in Berkeley. The man in charge of the kitchen was Arnon Oren, a talented alumnus of Chez Panisse, and Orensigned him on. At Café Cacao, Kaplan says, he first really began to understand the subtleties of extremely fresh ingredients, and how to allow the natural qualities of the food to take center stage.
The most valuable lesson he took away from the place, he says, was "Don't get in the way of the product." From Café Cacao, Kaplan went to work for Rick Hackett at MarketBar in San Francisco.
Ironically, he was so impressed with what he learned there about the interconnections between the local restaurant community and the small farmers and food producers of the region that he was inspired to leave the Bay Area-to return home to Maryland with the idea of stimulating an appreciation of locally, sustainably grown food in the Free State's restaurants.
He was just getting started when Rick Hackett called and asked him to come back to the Bay Area as Bocanova's chef-de-cuisine. He jumped at the chance. "This is a wonderful opportunity," he says, "to collaborate with somebody I admire in the creation of a unique concept based on our shared values of quality, freshness, and sustainability.
