Olivia Lopez’s Aguachile, Colima-Style

This fabulous, easy-to-achieve aguachile comes to us care of Olivia Lopez, the talented chef-owner of Molino Olōyō, and Cooks Without Borders’ Mexican Cuisine expert. “You’ll find an aguachile like this,” says Lopez, “in almost every restaurant in Colima.” That’s the state in Mexico where she grew up, in a town called Tecomán, on the Pacific coast between Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatenejo.

[Read: “Dreaming of a Mexican beach vacation? This vibrant aguachile from Colima will (almost!) take you there”

This particular recipe is the one Lopez’ friend Nayely makes back home in Tecomán. It’s achieved by steeping butterflied shrimp briefly in lime juice with a touch of Worcestershire sauce (“Yes, they use that in Mexico,” says Lopez), then puréeing the steeping liquid with avocado, cilantro and serrano chile. The result is an emerald-green sauce with beautiful body. Back into it the shrimp go, and the aguachile is garnished with red onion, cucumber and more avocado, and served with tostadas.

If you like, serve it with tostadas, which you can make from heirloom corn masa harina or buy in Latin-American supermarkets.

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (from about 7 to 8 juicy limes)

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

1 pound 16/20 shrimp, peeled, deveined and either butterflied (see instruction following the recipe) or sliced in half lengthwise

1 medium avocado, plus additional diced or sliced avocado for garnish

1 medium bunch cilantro, roughly chopped, about 3 ounces (including some of the stems)

2 serranos, seeded and roughly chopped

1 Persian cucumber or 1/3 hothouse cucumber, cut in half or quarters vertically, then sliced 1/4 inch thick

1/4 medium red onion, sliced thin

Tostadas (small fried corn tortilla rounds) or tortilla chips for serving, if desired

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, combine the lime juice, salt and Worcestershire sauce. Add the shrimp, pushing them down so they’re entirely submerged in the liquid. Let them marinate in in the lime juice mixture for 10 minutes (no longer, or they’ll be too “cooked” by the acid).

2. Strain the juice mixture into the jar of a blender, setting the shrimp aside, covered, in the refrigerator. Add the flesh of the avocado to the jar, along with the cilantro and about half the chopped serrano. Taste and adjust the seasoning, adding serrano and salt to taste as necessary.

3. Add the sauce to the bowl containing the shrimp and toss well to combine. Transfer the aquachile to a serving dish and garnish with the reserved avocado, the cucumber and the red onion. Serve immediately, with tostadas or tortilla chips, if you like.

To butterfly shrimp:

Use a small, sharp knife to slice the shrimp open along its back, but not cutting all the way through. This makes it easy to devein, as well.

If it’s too time consuming or you’re using larger shrimp, cut each one all the way through into two pieces.