Monday, July 14, 2008

Ensalada De Jaiva (Mexican Immitation Crab Salad)


It kinda taste like Shrimp Cocktail.
Also my mom told me she has never seen this dish in Southern Mexico where she was raised nor had she ever heard of immitation crab meat called "Jaiva" by us Hispanics/ Latinos, she learned this when she came to the USA from friends.
Apparently I think this might be one of those "Mexican-American" dishes or a Northern Mexican dish. It is very popular here in Southern California. Many people have their own versions that include "Mayonnaise" or "Mustard" IN MY HOUSE WE DON'T DO IT LIKE THAT.
I only took pictures of the final dish, since this is really easy and the camera was gonna die.
We eat eat this/use it as a topping for "TOSTADAS" (lightly fried corn-tortillas like a hard round large chip) and top it with hot sauce (usually bottled "Tapatillo Sauce") also sometimes top it with sliced AVOCADOES

Ingredients
-2 ½ pounds "Jaiva" (immitation crab meat) (shredded)
-1 ¼ pound medium Shrimp (cleaned)
-1 Cup thinly chopped celery
-1 Cup onion minced
-2 Cups minced radish or 2 Cups minced tomatoes (sine the WHOLE TAINTED tomato issue is currently going on WE didn't use raw tomatoes we subbed it for RED RADISHES)
-3 large Cucumbers (deseeded and chopped into small bite size cubes)
-2 Cups Cilantro minced
-2 Cups Tomato Cocktail Juice (Clamato brand)
-1 ½ cups freshly squeezed LIME juice
-½ cup - ¾ cup Ketchup
-Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
-In a pan DO NOT HEAT oil just throw in shrimp at high heat, salt and pepper and toss them around until fully cooked, set aside
-Toss all minced vegetables together set aside
-Shred all the immitation crab meat/ Jaiva.
-TOSS ALL INGREDIENTS TOGETHER NOW, vegetables, Jaiva, Cooked Shrimp, Ketchup, Salt, Pepper, Tomato Cocktail, Lime Juice.
-Taste to see if it needs more of something and you are done.
NOTE: This recipe MAKES A LOT so you may want to cut it in half this gave us about 10 generous servings or more, it also refrigerates really for a couple days. If you are rich you may use real CRAB MEAT but hey this is about Mexican cooking and here in California when we think of this salad it's usually "Jaiva" no crab.

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