Shrimp Ceviche Tostadas – Poached shrimp tossed with a citrus vinaigrette, cucumbers, tomatoes, and onions and placed on top of homemade tostada shells.

Cinco de Mayo is tomorrow and let’s face it – it’s just not going to be the same. We’re all going to be enjoying our Mexican treats from home this year, whether you order takeout from your favorite local spot or make a feast of your own.

If you choose to make your own feast, I’ve got just the meal to change things up – tostadas. Think of them as open-faced hard tacos. But instead of topping with refried beans and ground beef, I’m going in a more refreshing direction.

Say hello to my Shrimp Ceviche Tostadas!

What is ceviche?

Ceviche is a seafood dish that contains fish or shellfish and is served cold and contains diced veggies and/or fruits. It’s super refreshing and perfect to enjoy during the hot, summer months. Traditionally, making ceviche involves poaching the fish in a cold, acidic marinade that will cook the fish.

However, this process is best when you have access to good-quality fish that is not likely to have bacteria – the acidic marinade will cook the fish but it is not guaranteed to kill all bacteria that may be present in the fish. Therefore, I am choosing to poach my shellfish in hot, boiling water to make it safe to eat and then marinade in the citrus liquid in the refrigerator.

How is this ceviche made?

As I said above, this ceviche will start with us poaching the shrimp in boiling water for a couple minutes, just until the shrimp is cooked. To prevent the shrimp from getting tough and overcooked, the shrimp is then immediately cooled in an ice bath.

Next, we chop up the shrimp into bite-sized pieces and add it to chopped jalapeno, red onion, and a mixture of fresh lime and orange juice. This mixture is refrigerated for 1 hour to let the shrimp absorb all the flavors.

Finally, the ceviche is finished off by adding in the last of the ingredients: diced cucumber, tomato, and fresh cilantro.

Assembling the tostadas

Once the ceviche is done, it’s ready to place on top of tostadas. I make my own tostadas to make them perfectly crispy – sometimes the storebought kind can be stale and boring. But they’ll work fine if you don’t want to make your own.

To make tostadas at home, you simply heat oil in a skillet and fry corn tortillas until golden brown. I like to flip mine frequently during frying to prevent bubbles from forming in the tortilla.

Once the shells come out of the oil, make sure to season them with salt and let them drain on paper towels.

When the tostadas are cooled, they’re ready for topping. I like to spread mine with a spicy mayo to hold the ceviche in place. The mayo is simple to make – just add hot sauce to the mayo and mix together.

Spread the mayo on the tostadas and top with the ceviche. And now they’re ready to eat!

Tips & Tricks

1. Make sure the oil is hot before frying the corn tortillas. If it’s not hot enough, the tostadas will take too long to fry and will end up being oily and soggy.
2. You’ll need to thoroughly drain the shrimp from the vinaigrette before topping the tostadas. Otherwise, the tostadas will get too soggy.
3. This ceviche only keeps for a few days in the fridge so do not make too far in advance of serving time.
4. This recipe makes large tostadas. But you can also make them miniature size for larger gatherings. Instead of frying your own large tostadas, you can use round corn tortilla chips as mini tostadas.

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