Fish Ceviche

Posted by Judy on 8 July 2011 in Eat | 0 comments

Many weeks ago, Paul posted an article concerning cooking with acids. The followup to that was supposed to be this long overdue ceviche recipe, which has been sitting in draft form for many weeks now.

I don’t know about you guys, but summers in Montreal can be sticky and hot. The air is so hot and heavy that you pretty much lose the will to move, let alone cook. Turning on stove will just make matters worse. Therein lies the dilemma, eat yet another salad or sandwich or if you are lucky enough to own one turn on the barbecue and grill something. Mind you the barbecue is also going to make you hot, just not heat up the inside of your house.

This is where ceviche comes in. Ceviche is seafood dish marinated in a citrus-based mixture, with lemons and limes being the most commonly used. In addition to adding flavor, the citric acid causes the proteins in the seafood to become denatured, effectively cooking the seafood without heat. The house remains cool and you don’t have to have yet another salad.

As this dish is not actually cooked with heat, make sure you use absolutely fresh fish or seafood to avoid poisoining yourself or your guests. The result of this experiment was good. The only thing that was a little odd to me was the texture of the fish. It was “cooked”, but did not flake the way one would expect cooked fish to. It tasted good and being a fan of all things tart and limey this was a treat. I know the dish itself can be made with seafood such as shrimp or scallops, but I think I will stick to fish. I am not sure I can wrap my mind around seafood that has not seen heat outside the context of sushi (I am thinking of Hotake or spicy scallop). I know it is kind of silly, but hey it’s psychological, what can I say.

Fish Ceviche

2 lbs of firm, fresh red snapper fillets, cut into bite sized chunks (make sure it is completely deboned)
1 cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
1/2 red onion, finely diced
1 green onion, chopped
1 cup of chopped fresh seeded tomatoes
1 jalapeño chili, finely diced (seeded if you prefer it on the mild side)
2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp ground oregano
Hot sauce to taste (I went with calypso sauce but something like Tabasco is fine too)
Chopped cilantro for garnish

Method

- Place the fish, red onion, green onion, tomatoes, jalapeño, salt, hot sauce, and oregano in a non-reactive dish, such as Pyrex or ceramic.

- Pour the lime juice over the fish and cover. Let it rest in the fridge for several hours allowing the fish to “cook” and the flavors to bend. Stir the fish every hour to ensure that all the fish gets exposed to the lime juice. Once the fish has gone from translucent to white and opaque, the ceviche is ready to be served.

- Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve. You can serve with warm tortillas for a ceviche taco if you don’t mind the carbs.