It’s the 2019 Red Carpet Menu for Oscar®!
For Vice, it’s ceVIChE!
This year’s menu was quite a challenge, especially when creating a dish for Vice. Many people suggested Rice or Ice… but it just didn’t reflect the movie. Ceviche was a more interesting option, even if it is somewhat of a stretch. One word titles are the worst!
But what was the opposite of the worst was Vice. The movie depicts the life of Dick Cheney and the things he did while the VP. Christian Bale was simply incredible. What a transformation! The whole movie and how the story unfolds is compelling. The actual story and having lived through it? Yeeesh.
It seems Dick likes to fish. Towards the end, there was a scene where he was attempting to make a deal… juxtaposed was a fishing pole being baited, cast, and yes, when the deal was agreed to… a fish was caught! That was my motivation for the dish.
So I have a confession… I’ve only had ceviche once and I liked it but what’s this raw fish “cooked” in citrus thing? Seemed crazy but I like sushi so I told myself it would be ok. Hahah! How pedestrian of me. Now I wanted to actually make it myself… and I was nervous about it. Does this really work? So I looked to my friend Barbara DeBisschop who had said she had a great recipe. Using it for inspiration, I created this dish and honestly, I wasn’t expecting it to be as great as it is!
I knew the flavors would work but what was that shrimp going to look like after hours in the fridge? And then I saw it was pink and beautiful and the flavors were perfectly mingled! I can’t get over how amazing it is! The tart lime flavors with the peppers… onion… that incredible shrimp! But… what to serve it with!
Staying with the southern cuisine theme for the meal, I didn’t want to grab a quick tortilla chip and call it good. I went back to history of ceviche and saw it would be served with starchy foods like potatoes and knowing the love of sweet potatoes in the south, well… sweet potato chips would do the trick!
The awesome ceviche coupled with the mellow sweetness of the chips are the perfect compliment. The dish that was the hardest to come up with turns out to be the easiest to make!
One appetizer down… another to go!
Happy Oscars!
Annette
