Recipe: Shrimp Ajillo Tostada

You’ve got to try this unique combination of Floridian flavors!

The Shrimp Ajillo Tostada is a tostada topped with roasted garlic-guajillo shrimp, mashed avocado, jicama, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cilantro, orange, and a citrus-soy vinaigrette. This dish is being offered at Frontera Cocina at Disney Springs during the Flavors of Florida event, but we’ve compiled a recipe for you to recreate it at home. You won’t want to miss out on this unique shrimp and orange combo!

Shrimp Ajillo Tostada

Yields 12 tostadas

Ingredients:

Shrimp & Marinade

• 16 ounces raw, tail-off, peeled and deveined large frozen shrimp, thawed

• 6 Guajillo chile peppers, washed and seeded

• ½ cup water

• 2 peeled garlic cloves

• ¾ cup apple cider vinegar

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

Citrus-Soy Vinaigrette

• 1 tablespoon soy sauce

• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

• 1 tablespoon orange juice

• 2 teaspoons lemon juice

• 1 teaspoon lime juice

• ½ teaspoon grated ginger root

• 1 teaspoon olive oil

• 1 pinch black pepper

Tostada

• Tostada shells

• 2 avocados, mashed

• 1 package of Jicama sticks, cubed

• 1 package of Cherry tomatoes, cut in halves

• ½ red onion, thinly sliced

• 4 mandarin oranges, peeled and separated

• Cilantro

Instructions:

Shrimp & Marinade

1. Defrost your frozen shrimp by pouring the shrimp into a colander and submerging the colander in a large bowl of cold water. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the colander and pour out the water. Refill the bowl and submerge the colander again for another 10 minutes. Repeat as necessary until shrimp is thawed.

2. Roast the chile peppers in a frying pan until lightly toasted.

3. Place the peppers in cold water and let them sit for about 30 minutes.

4. Add the peppers to a blender along with ½ cup of the water they have been sitting in, garlic, vinegar, salt, and cumin.

5. Blend until smooth.

6. Add the thawed shrimp to a freezer bag.

7. Pour the marinade into the bag and seal.

8. Refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours.

Citrus-Soy Vinaigrette

1. Add the soy sauce, rice vinegar, orange juice, lemon juice, lime juice, grated ginger root, olive oil, and black pepper in a mixing bowl.

2. Whisk for 30 seconds to combine.

Shrimp

1. Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to a medium frying pan and heat over medium-high heat.

2. Once the pan is hot, add the marinated shrimp in an even layer.

3. Cook for 3 minutes then use tongs to flip the shrimp over to the other side. Cook for another 3 minutes and then remove from the pan.

Assembling the Tostada

1. Sauté the cherry tomatoes and cubed jicama sticks on medium heat for 10 minutes.

2. Set out your tostada shells.

3. Add mashed avocado in an even layer to the tostada shells.

4. Add a few pieces of jicama and tomatoes to each tostada.

5. Cut up the shrimp and add a few pieces to each tostada.

6. Add 3-4 sections of the mandarin oranges to each tostada.

7. Add a few slices of red onion to each tostada.

8. Drizzle the citrus-soy vinaigrette over each tostada.

9. Top each tostada with a sprig of cilantro.

Takeaway:

These turned out pretty good! It was a little difficult to eat them without breaking the tostada shell, but the combination of flavors was great. I originally sautéed the tomatoes and jicama before cooking the shrimp, but they ended up being a little cold by the time I assembled the tostadas. I would recommend cooking them at the same time or right before the shrimp to keep them from getting cold. You could also keep them over low heat until they are ready to serve if you make them earlier. I heated our tostada shells in the oven at 200ºF while cooking the shrimp, which warmed them nicely. Overall this was a pretty easy recipe and had a very unique flavor combination, so I would recommend trying it!