NEW ORLEANS (press release) – With Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) beginning Sunday (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), Alma Café’s Chef Melissa Araujo is sharing a recipe for Aguachile Negro.
James Beard: Best Chef South 2024 semifinalist Melissa Araujo is the Chef/Owner of Alma Café in New Orleans. At Alma – which means soul in Spanish – the Honduran native pays tribute to her grandmother’s cooking with dishes like Baleadas, Pollo Chuco, Fritas Hondurenas, Chicharron con Yuca, and more while also melding classic Honduran flavors with modern technique and the bounty of Louisiana.
AGUACHILE NEGRO
Salsa Negra Ingredients:
- 1 white onion, quartered
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled
- 6 Chile morita and 6 chile negro (or pasilla)
- 2 tomatoes
- Cilantro
- 1/4 cup water
Aguachile Ingredients:
- 1 red onion, sliced thin
- 2/3 cup lime juice, divided
- Salt and black pepper
- 3 tablespoons Maggi seasoning
- 3 tablespoons soy sauce
- 2 black garlic cloves
- 1 pound scallops
- 1 pound of shrimp
- 1 English cucumber, sliced
- 1 avocado, diced
Directions:
- Heat a comal or griddle or cast iron skillet over high heat. When it’s hot, char the onion and the garlic clove, chiles, and tomatoes well.
- When both cut sides of the onion quarters are blackened, roughly chop and put into a blender with garlic, chiles, tomatoes, and cilantro.
- While the onion is charring, mix in some salt with the sliced red onion and toss with about 1/4 cup of the lime juice. Let this sit in a bowl until you are ready to serve. Doing this quick pickles the onion and removes any sulfur bite to it.
- Add the rest of the lime juice, Maggi, soy, about 1 teaspoon black pepper, the black garlic cloves, if using, and the water to the blender and puree everything.
- Toss the scallops, shrimp and cucumber with the sauce and put some on everyone’s plates. Add the avocado, the red onions, the cilantro and crushed chiltepin chiles. Serve at once.
