Ceviche
One of many ceviche preparations
One fallacy with recipes and especially ceviche recipes, is that they overcomplicate things. To make ceviche you need fresh white fish and citrus, that's it. Many recipes start out with "1kg of fish" and "1/2 kilo of lemons". You need half a lemon and half a lime and a small amount of white fish to do it well.
All you need is fish + lemon + lime
It's a lot to do with how you cut the fish and how long it's been aged. A fresh fish (same day) cut along the muscle grain will take longer to cure. A fish that's 1-2 days old and cut through the muscle fibers will cure much faster. Small cubes seems to be the most traditional cut.
Cubes is the traditional cut
Just salt the fish lightly and add it to the citrus juice. You may find that the straight lemon/lime mix is a bit too tart. Adding a tiny bit of sugar helps, or even better some orange or mandarin (a small amount!). You should try the juice as you go, to get an idea of how you want it.
Make the juice first
You want the juice to cover the fish. Hence I normally make the juice mix first, then cut up just enough fish and add it to the juice as I go. If you don't have enough juice to cover the fish completely, you can get away with turning it over every 5-10 min and letting it cure a bit longer.
Ideally cover completely
I let it cure in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. If you're worried, let it sit for 1+ hours so that it's turned pearl white, although the experts will say this is too long. What I eat is sashimi grade, so I eat it half raw.
I'm ok with a some parts still raw
When it's done I'll scoop it into a different bowl with a little bit of the juice and add ingredients on top. I like coriander, red onion, and red capsicum or jalapeno - all finely diced.
Coriander + red onion + chili or capsicum
If you want to impress people just drown it in mango and stuff, but it'll be more of a fruit salad than ceviche.
Traditionally it's served with fried plantains (non-sweet banana) but most people end up eating it with corn chips.
Ceviche + corn chips
My preferred way
This Peruvian Fish Ceviche recipe is the closest I've found to the way I like it. This is how I first had ceviche in Costa Rica and still the best I've tried.
First ceviche I ever had and still the best (Costa Rica)
I've tried it "Tiradito" and thought it was pretty awful for all the work, but I've got no reference as to what it should taste like and didn't have the exact right ingredients.
A lot of people love Tahitian style ceviche (poisson cru) with coconut milk/cream. It's not my jam, but it's definitely nice! Larger cubes of fish, with cucumber and tomato.
Types of fish
- Snapper
- School Mackerel
- Spanish Mackerel
- Spotted Mackerel
- Bonito
- Cobia
- Mahi Mahi