Scallop Ceviche on Rice Crackers

I recently purchased the Eleven Madison Park cookbook, and my god, is it the porniest of food porn. The rice puffs/rice crackers/whatever you want to call them featured here are from the hors d’oeuvre section of the book. The book serves them with seared hamachi, but I was in the mood to make ceviche, so there you go. This recipe utilizes acetate sheets, which I think you can buy in a craft store. I did it without them, which yielded a yellower cracker than the fancy picture in the book. Also, this was my first time properly deep frying something, and I didn't burn my apartment to the ground. So I got that going for me.

Rice crackers (yields 8):

1 cup sushi rice

2 cups water

4 cups canola oil

Acetate sheets (optional)

Preheat oven to 175°F. Salt the water and bring to a boil in a sauce pan. Add the rice and simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat and allow the rice to steam for 5 minutes. Place a silicone baking mat (you can probably use parchment paper instead) on a sheet pan and pour the rice in the middle. Place an acetate sheet over top (I used parchment paper instead), and use a rolling pin to flatten the rice to about 1/8" thick. Remove the acetate/parchment and place the rice in the oven for two hours, until dry. Break the rice into 8 pieces or so.

In a medium pot, bring the oil up to 395°F. Deep fry the rice pieces until they turn white and puff. Mine didn’t turn white – probably since I didn’t use the acetate sheets. I found frying the rice for about a minute got it nice and crispy. Season with salt while the crisps are still warm.

Ceviche:

½ pound scallops, cut into pieces

2 medium tomatoes, deseeded and diced

2 jalapenos, deseeded, deveined, and diced

2 radishes, diced

1 shallot, diced

½ cucumber, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup lime juice

½ cup orange juice

Handful each of parsley and cilantro, chopped

Salt

Chopping practice. Cut what needs to be cut, and combine everything except the herbs in a bowl. Allow the fish to marinade in the citrus for an hour so it can cook. Add the herbs and season with salt. Place a slice of avocado on a cooled rice cracker and add a dollop of ceviche to serve.