Recipe: Crack a Cerveza and Make Rosa Cienfuegos's Aguachile Negro

Through her Sydney tamaleria and numerous cookbooks, Rosa Cienfuegos continues to lift the profile of Mexican cuisine in Australia. But the 120 recipes in this year’s title, La Mesa Mexicana, showcases the diversity of Mexico’s regional cuisines like never before.

This one, for example, is attributed to the tiny, artificial island of Mexcaltitan in the country’s west. Surrounded by marshland and reachable only by boat, it’s often referred to as “The Venice of Mexico” and is believed by some historians to be the ancestral home of the Aztecs. It’s also where you’ll find amazing aguachile, “one of Mexico’s most popular seafood dishes”.

“This is a unique and bold twist on the classic aguachile … featuring a rich, dark sauce made with lots of spices,” Cienfuegos writes.

The zingy, no-cook dish is mainly a marination game. It also calls for totopos (tortilla chips) for scooping up the situation. La Mesa Mexicana includes a recipe for making totopos from scratch, but store-bought will also work here. 

The one “true tradition” you shouldn’t substitute?  “Make sure you have a cold beer on hand!”

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Rosa Cienfuegos’s aguachile negro (chilli prawns with black salsa)

Serves 6

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 50 minutes including resting

Ingredients

1kg raw small prawns, peeled and deveined

3 short cucumbers

1 red onion, finely sliced

1 tsp table salt

Pinch of black pepper, freshly ground 

Juice of 2 limes

1 small bunch of coriander, finely chopped

250ml (1 cup) salsa negra (see below) 

2 avocados, sliced

salted crackers or totopos, to serve

Salsa negra

100ml lime juice

100ml Clamato

100ml Maggi seasoning

100ml Worcestershire sauce

20ml Valentina hot sauce, Tapatio or sriracha

1 fresh habanero chilli, seeds removed, finely chopped

Pinch of black pepper, freshly ground

Method

Make the salsa negra by mixing all the ingredients together in a bowl. The salsa will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

Using a small knife, cut halfway through the back of each prawn lengthways and open it out like a pair of butterfly wings. Place the prawns in a large non-metallic bowl.

Finely chop two of the cucumbers and add to the prawns with the onion, salt and pepper.

Roughly chop the remaining cucumber and place in a blender. Add the lime juice and coriander and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture over the prawns and stir to combine. Cover and set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes for the flavours to come together.

Pour the salsa negra over the prawns and gently mix through. Cover and leave for another 20 minutes so the prawns “cook” in the sauce. 

Serve the prawns in a large bowl for guests to help themselves, with the avocado and salted crackers or totopos on the side.

This is an edited extract from La Mesa Mexicana by Rosa Cienfuegos. Published by Smith Street Books RRP $69.99.