I sure learned a lot from Chef Claudette Zepeda’s recipe for Strawberry (and Radish…..online the radish is omitted from the name of recipe ) aguachile recipe. I had no idea that you can lightly cook strawberries and come up with such an amazing strawberry sauce that is truly amazing. I just had to do parts of the recipe different. I also didn’t want to throw out vegetable and fruit solids that tasted so good and added healthy fiber and nutrition to the dish. I cut out some of the straining. I also cut out picking out seeds from tiny chitepin peppers (who does that?), and icing up and drying chopped scallions before serving (it really is a nice touch but………). Also picking off cilantro leaves one by one. The big one that I couldn’t agree with was not using one third of a roasted pepper because it was just too much roasted red pepper…….(how could that that be?….the roasted pepper is so darn delicious. By not doing all those things I guess what I made is no longer aguachile and really is a cold soup. >>>>>>>>Also I think I simplified the cooking of the strawberries. It is also very hard to keep a simmering bowl of water under a bowl with 2 pounds of strawberries for an HOUR…..I made that easier by cooking them in a low oven. This recipe was based from chef Claudette Zepeda’s Food & Wine Magazine Recipe. It came out delicious anyway. You need to know that this is a very time consuming recipe…I cut out some steps and it still is very time consuming. You are welcome to strain everything all you want if you care to. If you strain everything you will have a true aguachile but you also will end up with much less.

Ingredients for around 4 servings

1 red bell pepper – roasted – stem, skin, seeds, removed and chopped

2 1/2 pounds strawberries – stems removed, quartered divided into 2 pounds and 1/2 pound that is reserved for topping the aguachile

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

3 medium scallions – root cut off – white and light green chopped – separate the dark green part and trim thin on a diagonal

1/4 cup fresh cilantro – leaves and fine stems – chopped and reserve 6 of the thicker stems, chop the stems but keep them separate

2oz cucumber flesh – diced

2 limes – just the fresh squeezed juice

1 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice

5 dried chiltepin (or easier to find pequin) dried peppers – crushed

4 regular radishes sliced thin or use any radish you want. You just need a little to garnish each bowl.

radish micro greens for garnish

optional sea salt flakes for finishing

Directions

Set your oven to 180 degrees F.

In a large baking dish or pan add 2 pounds (remember you should have reserved 1/2 pound) strawberries. Sprinkle the strawberries with salt and sugar. Cover the pan and place on the middle rack of your preheated oven. This stays in the oven for an hour.

Take a break…or do the next step and put it off to the side and into the refrigerator.

Combine the cucumber, lime juice, lemon juice, chiltepin peppers, bell pepper, white and light green scallions, reserved cilantro stems. Blend till smooth.

By now your strawberries should be out of the oven. You need to place them in a colander over a bowl to catch the juices that leak out. This will take another HOUR.

All the strawberry juice gets added to the cucumber/strawberry juice mixture. Blend up the strawberries till smooth and add that also to the cucumber mixture till smooth.

This needs to chill in the refrigerator a few hours before serving.

Assemble – divide the aguachile into 4 servings. Top each bowl with the remaining strawberries, radish slices, cilantro, scallions, radish sprouts. Add flaked salt if you like.

A Special THANKS!!! to chef Claudette Zepeda and Food & Wine Magazine for inspiring me to do my twist on their amazing recipe.