Deciding on a Recipe for My Cooking Show: Spicy Shrimp Ceviche Cups Dilemma

[julesh]

The host at my cooking show tomorrow asked me to do the spicy shrimp ceviche cups. I did my test run today and wasn't very impressed with the taste. I'm wondering if I should change to a different recipe. OR, if I should tweek the recipe a bit. My family are great guinea pigs because they'll try anything and give an honest opinion. I didn't get better than an "OK" from them.
Has anyone else tried this recipe?
Should I go with something else, which means starting from scratch before my 2nd cooking show?! (sigh)

 

[chee65]

I've made these and everyone loved them. I even had to email the recipes to the guests because they thought they were great. Hmmm I wonder what went wrong. Or maybe your family isn't fond of ceviche or shrimp. The tough part of the recipe I thought was getting the tortilla to stay in the cup LOL.

 

[DebbieJ]

What didn't they like about them? I made them with chicken and thought they were outstanding. If I make them again, I'll use less lime juice, but that's about it.

 

[yummybytes]

I liked them better with chicken also

 

[julesh]

It makes me feel MUCH better that some of you have had success with them at shows!!Well, I decided to stick with them. My family loves shrimp and spicy food. Dh thought there was too much onion and cucumber, but he doesn't like cucumber so I ignored that part. Personally, I thought there was a bit too much red pepper and onion. So I may just adjust those things when I make it tonight.OH, about getting the tortillas to stay in the cups. I had the same problem. Today I'm going to try heating the tortillas in the microwave to make them softer. I think that should take care of the problem.

 

[DebbieJ]

to get the tortillas to stay, I found that I had to cut much longer slits than what the recipe says.

when I do this as a show recipe, I bake all the tortilla cups in advance and just pass around the Season's Best open to the page with the pictures on how to make the cups. MUCH easier!!!

 

[julesh]

I thought about making the cups ahead of time; but, what I've decided to do is have most of them prepared and in the muffin tins before the show, and then just demo a couple of the cups so that I show the tools used.

 

[DebbieJ]

Just to demo the pizza cutter, silicone brush, and tart shaper???

They will find those items in the catalog on their own--seriously! Make it easy on yourself! This is one of those recipes that can go wrong fast.

 

[julesh]

Thanks, Debbie! Hadn't thought of it that way.

 

[KellyTheChef]

I had these @ a cluster meeting. My Director made the cups ahead of time - just kept them in the MMP to display and talked us through making the cups you can also cut one of the shells in front of them so they can understand how you made them. The filling was a nice quick demo and I thought they tasted AMAZING!

 

[straitfan]

Both shows that I've made them for, I made a full tray of cups ahead of time, and then just saved 1 tortilla to demo. at the show (didn't even bake the 4 cups it made). I thought that the technique needed to be shown, as they ARE tricky--my first batch was a disaster!


I've also been increasing the amount of sour cream to make more filling.......

 

[Paige Dixon]

I subbed egg roll wrappers for the tortillas. Way easy to handle that way. The guests loved them. But the host bought parsley instead of cilantro...

 

[KellyTheChef]

I subbed egg roll wrappers for the tortillas. Way easy to handle that way. The guests loved them. But the host bought parsley instead of cilantro...

I have started purchasing ingredients for this VERY reason!

That would make them taste VERY different! The cilantro really gives it that tropical flavor!

 

[julesh]

They were a hit! I forgot the serrano pepper, but no one knew the difference.

I've also been increasing the amount of sour cream to make more filling.......

I'm going to do the same thing. The amt. the recipe makes isn't quite enough.