Jaiva, Jon's Way

When we were on our California trip last week, my cousin Jon and his wife were so gracious to open their home to us for a couple nights. They live north of LA, and after we did our thing in Huntington beach last Saturday, we made the trek up to their house. A little while after we settled in, Jon brought out this amazing crab ceviche type dish...that was absolutely to.die.for.
I mean. I could not get this salad out of my head for days. On the way home...Mr Toddlerwhisperer is thinking about the beach, the kids are thinking about Disneyland, and I...well, I'm thinking of Jon's Jaiva.

What is jaiva you may ask? It's translation from Spanish is crab. So basically, this is a delicious, tart, salty, spicy, seafood salad. Are you ready for the recipe? (scroll down for picture free instructions. Click here for printable recipe)

You need 1/2 lb shrimp and 1/2 lb crab meat

You also need onion, chiles, tomatoes, cilantro, lime (or lemon) and avocados

chop cooked shrimp

chop and shred crabmeat

my kids would have been happy if this were the finished product...they love seafood

dice up your veggies really small

Oooooh so pretty

add your citrus juice

mix together and refrigerate

are you ready to eat?

instead of putting the hot sauce in the salad, we chose to place it on individually to our liking

Jon's Jaiva

Ingredients

1/2 lb    Jaiva (Crabmeat) **as a side note, Jon made it with imitation crab...not because he's a cheapskate, but because he and his wife like the way it tastes in this dish better...and we LOVED it**

1/2 lb    shrimp deveined (when we made it...we bought cooked shrimp)

Juice from 5-6 lemons (we used limes)

3-4   Roma tomatoes, cut into small cubes

1/2  onion finely chopped

1-2 serrano chile without seeds finely chopped (we used an anaheim chile)

1 T   Salt

1 bunch cilantro

Splash tapatio sauce  (we bought a different brand...pick your favorite from the Mexican food aisle)

corn tostadas

avocado

directions

parboil shrimp (or use the cooked shrimp like we did)

chop shrimp and jaiva and mix with juice from lemons

add tomatoes, onion, cilantro, chile salt and tapatio sauce

refrigerate before serving

serve on tostada shells and top with chopped avocado. (and like they do in Tijuana...smear a little mayo on the tostada first)

Oh I sure hope you try this. A tasty, inexpensive, cool summer treat!