Craft service: food and snacks for cast & crew between meals

We’ve been working long hours on the set of Gods Behaving Badly, so we get snacky between meals! Luckily, the craft service on this film is amazing. It’s the best I’ve ever had! Peter, the chef, is my hero - he kinda blows my mind. He owns his own craft service company, J&P Craft, and has worked on many film sets from big budget projects like I Am Legend to small indies like Synecdoche, New York.

Peter has kindly offered to share his delicious chayote ceviche recipe with us here on The Kind Life. I haven’t tried these measurements, so I don’t know if they turn out perfectly. Peter is used to cooking for large groups, and he does everything by feel and taste, so you may have to experiment with the measurements given here. That said, this recipe is sooo worth the try!

Chayote Ceviche

Note from Peter: Last winter, my girlfriend and I went to the Dominican Republic for some sun and relaxation. It rained the minute we landed and continued to do so for five days. We made reservations for Cabo, flew home, and the next day found ourselves in Baja with much needed mojitos and lots of sun. The trip wasn't a total loss; we ate! Some upscale places, some dives. What they all had in common was chayote. Served cooked most of the time, I decided to check this vegetable out. This is one of the recipes I came up with – it’s very simple and you can increase or decrease the amounts easily.
 
Ingredients

• 5 chayotes, diced into 1/4 inch cubes (to prep chayotes for dicing, slice lengthwise in half, rub the chayote together meat to meat until starch is released, rinse, then remove pit and peel)
• 1 large jicama, peeled and diced into cubes (same size as chayote cubes)
• 3 mangos, peeled and diced to 1/2 inch cubes
• 4 medium golden beets, roasted and cooled (can be done a day in advance and refrigerated), diced into 1/4 inch cubes
• 2 cups grape tomatoes, washed and halved 
• 1 large red onion, small dice 
• 3 large jalapeno peppers, small dice 
• 10 limes + zest of 2 limes 
• 1/4 cup agave syrup 
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 large bunch fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped 
• 1 loose cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped 
• 1/4 cup fresh chives, chopped small 
• Sea salt to taste 
• Black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix chayote, jicama, mango, golden beets, grape tomatoes, red onion, jalapenos
2. Toss gently and evenly 
3. Add zest of 2 limes, juice of all the limes (12), agave nectar and olive oil 
4. Toss and make sure lime juice coats all the ingredients 
5. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, tossing the salad every so often 
6. Add the mint, cilantro and chives 
7. Put back in the refrigerator for another hour 
8. Add salt and pepper to taste

I loved this recipe so much, so I asked Peter to share it with everyone….sooo good! Thank you Peter! If any of you try making this, let me know how it turns out!