Coconut Ceviche

I had dinner at Gracias Madre this weekend in Weho.  It's such a fun and lively spot on the weekend!  It also has a very beautiful outdoor patio for al fresco dining.  When I used to be a vegetarian, this was one of my favorite spots.  Even though I eat meat now, I love my veggies and I still enjoy going to vegetarian restaurants that offer creative twists on traditionally meat-based meals.  One of the dishes I had there this weekend was their Coconut Ceviche.  I enjoyed it but I thought it could use a little more citrus and fruit.  This inspired me to create my own coconut ceviche this week.  In my recipe, I used mango, corn, diced grapes, red onion, and cilantro.  I combined lime, lemon, and tangerine juices.  I also served my ceviche with plantain chips instead of tortilla chips.  My only challenge was that I didn't have fresh coconut meat.  And I was too lazy to search for it, so I settled on frozen coconut meat from Trader Joe's, which I soaked in warm water to defrost.  I have to admit, the ceviche would have probably worked better with fresh coconut meat.  The coconut meat was a little too hard.  But I guess that could still be an issue with fresh coconut as well.  I also think the ceviche could be good even without the coconut actually!  Although, in that case, it's really more like a mango salsa.  Oh well.  I tried!  This was a fun experiment though.  My recipe is below if you want to give it a shot!  Or you could use cooked shrimp instead of coconut meat.

Coconut Ceviche (Serves 4)

·      1½ cup coconut meat, cube or sliced

·      1 cup of mango, cubed

·      ½ cup of red grapes, diced

·      ½ cup of corn (from the can is ok)

·      ¼ cup of red onion, finely diced

·      ½ cup of cilantro, diced

·      ½ cup of lime juice

·      ¼ cup of lemon juice

·      ¼ cup tangerine juice or orange juice

·      1 tsp sugar

·      dash of salt and pepper

Mix the above ingredients in a large bowl and let sit in the fridge for at least an hour before serving.  Serve with tortilla or plantain chips.