Good morning Gravy Heads!

Look at all you motherfuckers up in the house that gravy built.

Getting me all teary eyed and shit. 

Think about this shit, man. 

We’ve been together for a long time. Long time. 

And we’ve had some times, now. Good times. Some of the stupidest shit I’ve ever read comes from here. 

We are family a real goddamn imaginary family. Truly. 

We’ve also been there to pick up those when needed and watered the ones that needed a drink. 

I love you people and that’s why I’m here again. 

AND we’re in the middle of a three day weekend.

We are back motherfuckers!

Season twelve what you got?

If you’re new to Sunday Gravy, well I thank you for being here and I hope you enjoy what’s coming your way for the next 7 months.

Sunday Gravy is one of the DFO offseason specialities that carries us though the godforsaken 7 month doldrums of no football and helps us to endure these trying times until next season starts.

Along with Request Line and the Monday Morning Mock Drafts and the rest! We are here to keep you entertained and educated and hopefully take your mind away from a disturbing lack of NFL content.

I’ve been doing this shit since 2015 now. Twelve fucking seasons and I’m actually surprised myself that I’m still over here fucking around with it.

Some internal character flaw no doubt resulting from a disturbing childhood and wilderness upbringing.

You ready to do this damn thing yet again?

I think I am but it’s mighty early in the season.

Got a beauty today. One of the best things I tried during the Sunday Gravy offseason and a dish that I was heretofore unaware of. A spicy, crisp, delicious little dick tingler of a dish that quickly became a personal favorite.

We’re going to make Aguachile!

During the holidays my job had its annual gift exchange and pot luck. Instead of being ambitious and cooking myself I just chipped in 20 bones towards the purchase of some extremely tasty spicy Asian style wings. 

Don’t give me that! The event was on a Tuesday at 11:30 in the morning. There ain’t no time to cook something, get ready and commute to work. When I lived close to work that was one thing. But I ain’t got time for that bullshit when factoring in my fucking fucked up daily commute.

Man, fuck the fucking 405. Fuck that damn thing.

Anyway during the potluck two of our guys in Transportation each brought similar dishes. The first brought a really delicious ceviche. Good chance you’ll see that before the season is over. The second prepared the dish we are featuring today. 

Aguachile is literally named “Chili Water.” Same preparation as a ceviche where seafood – shrimp in this case – is “cooked” in lime juice, mixed with onion, cilantro, chilies and such then served cold and fresh with tortilla chips. 

It’s fresh, fiery, incredibly healthy and straight up motherfucking delicious. It also lends itself to any number of variations. Dude who made this stuff and gave me the rough recipe details said he usually puts 4-5 serrano peppers AND several habaneros in there.

I did not do that being a “guero” of the purest form.

Don’t get me wrong. All of you know I love the spice and have a very high heat tolerance but for a first attempt I didn’t want to destroy the digestive tracts of every person who gave this a try. I’ll adjust accordingly to fit the vibe of the audience during future endeavors. 

This shit flat out blew me away. 

Aguachile hails from the Sinaloa state in Mexico. I’m sure many of you have recent ideas concerning the Sinaloa state that may not all be positive but I’m going to stay on the positive side today.

Give us the details Wiki!

“Sinaloa is located in northwest Mexico and is bordered by the states of Sonora to the northwest, Chihuahua to the north, Durango to the east, and Nayarit to the southeast. To the west, Sinaloa faces Baja California Sur, across the Gulf of California. Its natural geography is divided by the Sierra Madre Occidental, fertile river valleys, and a broad coastal plain along the Gulf of California. The state covers an area of 58,328 square kilometers (22,521 sq mi) and includes the islands of Palmito Verde, Palmito de la Virgen, Altamura, Santa María, Saliaca, Macapule, and San Ignacio.

Often referred to as the “breadbasket of Mexico”, Sinaloa produces about 40% of the nation’s food. Its economy is based on agriculture, fisheries, livestock breeding, tourism, mining, and food processing.”

Got all that?

Proceed on then?

Nice and easy one to get the Sunday Gravy Train going today.

Aguachile!

recipe courtesy of dude in Transportation as well as my own taste and sensibilities.

1 pound large shrimp – peeled, deveined, and butterflied – you can use cooked shrimp if you want

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

2 fresh serrano chiles, stemmed

2 jalapenos stemmed

3 cloves of fresh garlic

1 teaspoon of “Maggi” or soy sauce – I used soy sauce

⅓ cup fresh cilantro leaves and stems

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 small red onion, thinly sliced

1/4 cup of white vinegar

1/2 cup of water

Please note: many recipes used thinly sliced cucumber and some even add fresh avocado to the dish. This is my motherfucker here, so it does not.

Start with some fresh limes.

Yes, that would be six (6) limes!

Look I bought a juicer just for this purpose!

Alton Brown would no doubt give me shit for buying a “Uni-tasker” but I don’t give a shit. Spend a couple of bucks, save my ass some labor. Fair exchange.

Truth moment: six limes made close to half a cup, I augmented the offset with water. 

Juice them fuckers already! Juice them directly into the pitcher of your blender

Next remove the stems of the chilies and rough chop them. Adjust your heat level right here as you build the dish.

I WILL add a couple of more serranos next time.

Rinse and rough chop the cilantro then toss that shit in too!

Then the soy or Maggi, salt and the garlic.

Pulse until blended.

We will also require shrimp.

Yes, the whole idea behind making ceviche or aguachile is to use fresh raw shrimp and to let them cook in the lime juice.

It was my first attempt dammit and I erred on the side of caution. Yep I whimped out and used cooked. You can too if you are giving this a go and are a bit nervous about the raw seafood. It will still turn out goddamn delicious.

Leave the shrimp whole or cut into chunks. I cut them up thinking it would be easier to scoop onto the chips when eating.

Remove the tails though.

Next slice the red onion VERY thin.

Give the onion a quick pickle with the water and white vinegar.

Set the onion aside for a few.

Pour the cilantro, chili, lime goo over the shrimp and refrigerate for about 20-30 minutes.

We will also require some nice sturdy chips today.

If you haven’t fucked around with the “tostada” version of tortillas give them a try. They’re already cooked and ready to be topped with a healthy amount of whatever-the-fuck.

You can also warm up and toast these in the oven for a few which I do indeed recommend.

They are the proper level of sturdiness that we will require for a scooping mechanism.

Tired of your shitty little tortilla chips breaking because you want to scoop a god-awful amount of guac/queso/salsa into your mouth at one time?

Then this is your motherfucking chip right here. Good crunch to them too

Garnish the aguachile with the pickled onion, apply the tostada devil horns and serve the fuck up!

Might be a good idea to just keep an entire ice chest of iced down beers within reach. I’d also recommend a box of tissues for when the tearing/snotting part of the proceedings begin.

This shit is fucking ridiculous.

Just fucking dynamite. It’s cool, crisp, fresh, spicy, refreshing while also retaining the ability to make you sweat. You can serve with a side dish but why?

Just have a shit load of cervezas or as my buddy who introduced this to me said “It also goes really well with a bottle of tequila.”

This dish was meant to be made and shared. Take this shit to your next party or tailgate. You will blow some goddamn minds!

I could easily sit with this bowl in front of a game and eat it by the big ass scoopful.

Easy as can be to make, healthy to eat even and its ratio of quickness to make compared to deliciousness of product is off the goddamn charts.

DO THIS!

There we are! Good to see everyone back. I’m here to get you over your football withdrawals in whatever way I can. Think of me as your “sponsor.”

You’ve got this man! We can get through together.

As we did last year, I will be trying to keep posting the Fun Holidays for today courtesy of A Bit Of Good News. Especially now that this country has gotten even more stupid and shitty than last year we will indeed need to focus on the positive.

“Feb. 15 is World Hippo Day, World Pangolin Day, National Black Girl Magic Day, National Gumdrop Day, National I Want Butterscotch Day, Annoy Squidward Day and Susan B. Anthony Day.”

Oh shit! Is that a good omen that we open with World Hippo Day?

It might be!

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday everyone and let’s do this again next week, alright?

Until then…