Ceviche de Soya, the food for the new year

After I fainted for the first time in Mexico, I emerged from the upstairs room at Jorge's grandmas house to the fresh smell of ceviche. All day I layed in bed, too dizzy to read, and too full of medicine to do anything but stare out the windows. 

It was a beautiful show of hard rain with bright and loud lightning. Everything was new to me, I tasted so many things for the first time on that trip, but the most memorable was the ceviche. I couldn't believe this food that I was always jealous of existed in pure vegetarian form. It's like salsa you can eat, and eat and eat. It was the first food I ate that day and I wanted more. Forget the electrolytes, I just wanted more tostadas with ceviche.

For the new year I wanted to make something not as heavy as all the food I indulged in while visiting my family, and so we tried our best at re-creating the best meal of 2008 to help us move into 2009.

I've never seen dry soy before. Jorge's mom got this for us at the Fontana swapmeet, but that means you can probably find it at your local Super A, Amapola, Azteca Produce, etc.

Ceviche de Soya

8-12 oz bag of plain flavored dry soy

1  bottle of v-8 ( size depends on your liking for juicy or dry)

10 limes

2 lemons

chop these vegetables finely

2 bunches of cilantro

4 large tomatoes

2 celery sticks

1 white onion

3 cucumbers peeled and seeded

2 carrots

4 jalapenos half seeded

Preparation:

In large pot add 5 cups of water (enough to cover soy when done boiling, more water is better)

add 4 fresh slightly smashed garlic cloves

add one cube of vegetable bullion

boil water uncovered for 10 minutes

remove garlic cloves and bay leaves

add dry soy

boil soy for 2 minutes

remove pot from heat, cover pot and let stand for 30 minutes

in a large strainer press out the water from the soy, press really hard, you might even want to squeeze with your hands in small batches. You don't want it to turn out soggy.

then add the soy to all the other ingredients, salt and pepper to taste

for extra hotness, add 1 can of el pato sauce

cool in the fridge, but if you can't wait it still tastes excellent

stir it all together and scoop onto tostadas with a slice of avocado if you're feeling fancy

super yummy, super jeloso.