A Life, Lived: Ceviche

On our 12th week of salad explorations we traveled to Latin America thanks to Candi. She had selected Ceviche as her salad. We've had Ceviche a few times before and were eager to try it at home. Candis' recipe and our Mexican cooking class on Thursday inspired us to have an entire Mexican themed dinner on Saturday. MMMMM

Appearing on the menus of countless 'trendy' restaurants and bars, ceviche is the new "in" food of the beginning of the 21st century. Yet I discovered that it is actually an old world dish from Latin America. It has been one of Latin America's best-kept secret for centuries, but Ceviche is becoming a popular appetizer and will be gaining popularity as the century progresses.

Ceviche's birthplace is disputed between Peru and Ecuador, and as both countries have an amazing variety of fish and shellfish, it could easily have come from the ancient Inca civilizations of Peru and Ecuador. Every Latin American country has given seviche/ceviche its own touch of individuality by adding its own particular garnishes. In Peru, it is served with slices of cold sweet potatoes or corn-on-the-cob. In Ecuador, it is accompanied by popcorn, nuts, or corn nuts. It is also served in a large crystal bowl with the guests helping themselves, either by spearing it with toothpicks or filling the pastry shells. In Mexico, seviche is accompanied by slices of raw onions and served on toasted tortillas.

Ceviche, which is often spelled seviche or cebiche, depending on which part of South America it comes from, is seafood prepared in a centuries old method of cooking by contact with the acidic juice of citrus juice instead of heat. It can be eaten as a first course or main dish, depending on what is served with it. The preparation and consumption of ceviche is practically a religion in parts of Mexico, Central, and South America, and it seems as though there are as many varieties of ceviche as people who eat it.

Some folk are squeamish about ceviche because the fish isn't cooked with heat - I get that - the first time we tried it we were both a tad leery! LOL The great thing about Candi's recipe is that the fish is actually poached prior to being marinated in the dressing - any concerns that you have about raw fish can be packed away for something else. :-)

Candi wrote:

I chose a version of Ceviche that poaches the fish to reduce cooking time, and also for food safety reasons.I got the recipe for the book Ageless Face, Ageless Mind by Nicholas Perricone. I adapted it a bit to add more flavor.

We followed Candi's recipe as printed with a couple of changes . . . the halibut at the fish market was crazy expensive yesterday so we used mahi mahi and it seemed to work fine. We also doubled the cilantro because we really LOVE cilantro.

We both thought that this was excellent. now I am sure that the food purists out there will get their knickers in a twist and say that this isn't traditional ceviche. BAH Who cares? We both agreed that this recipe was great! I was going to only do half the recipe and I'm glad I did the full version as someone (who shall remain nameless) had thirds!

I'll be finishing off the leftovers today wrapped in tortillas as fish tacos. MMMMMM

Enjoy!

Ceviche

Prep time:15 minutes plus time to chill. Cooking time:10 minutes. Serves 6.

To cook the fish:
3 cups of water or chicken broth
1/2 cups white wine
juice of two limes
1 jalapeno or Serrano chili sliced in half
3 gloves of garlic,crushed
I Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
1/2 lb firm white fish fillet(halibut or the like)
1/2 lb large shrimp,peeled and de-veined

Coat the fish and shrimp with old bay. Bring the broth,wine, lime juice, chili and garlic to simmer. Add fish and shrimp and simmer(do not boil) until fish is opaque(about 5 minutes) and shrimp is pink(about 2 minutes). Remove from poaching liquid and cool in the refrigerator.

To make the salad:

2 large tomatoes,diced
1/2 white onion, diced
1 jalapeno,seeded and diced(or more if you wish)
juice of two limes
1/4 cup cilantro, diced
hot sauce to taste
sea salt and cracked black peppers to taste

Mix tomatoes, onion, jalapeno,lime juice and cilantro together. Season to taste with hot sauce,salt and pepper.

When the fish is cool, cut shrimp in half and fish into bite-sized pieces. Mix into tomato mixture. Chill for at least one hour and up to four hours.

Next week's salad is an Israeli Salad selected by Terry. I can't believe that we only have 6 more weeks of salads to go. this is depressing because they have all been so amazing!