Ceviche

I always get asked about my lunches and snacks at work. As you can probably guess, I am not much of a sandwich girl and I really do try to bring my lunch to work as many days a week as I can. That means I have cook a bit on Sunday to get me through to Tuesday and then refresh again then for the next few days.  Or I make extra dinner so I can have planned overs.

This is what I made today to take for my lunch for the next couple of days - Ceviche.  Ceviche is a marinated sea-food dish very popular in Central and South America.  I know...sounds fancy and complicated but it really isn't.  There is some chopping involved - really dicing -  but besides that, the dish really comes together incredibly fast and makes a great light lunch or a great appetizer served with nacho or plantain chips.

Typically the fish or seafood is used raw (hearts of palm make a great vegan substitute!) and is marinated in citrus - generally lime - which it is said "cooks" the fish.  Really what happens is a chemical reaction where the citric acid denatures, or changes, the proteins in the fish by altering it chemically and physically, turning the flesh firm and opaque so it looks like it has been cooked with heat.  A great thing to make in the summer when it is often too hot outside to think about turning on the oven.

You can use many different kinds of fish for this dish, such as snapper, tuna, salmon, mahi mahi or another flakey white fish, but just make sure it is very fresh.  Same for shellfish...shrimp and scallop ceviche is amazing - just ask my friends who come to my Christmas party - but it is best to stay away from frozen varieties if you can.  Your result will be ok with frozen but fresh is always best.

When I need fresh shrimp, the only place I know who sells it is Diana`s Seafood in Scarborough, and they don`t always have it.

Whatever kind of fish you are using, it’s important to cut it up into a small dice to ensure the most surface area is exposed to the citric acid. I would generally say a 1/4 inch dice is about the perfect size.
A flakier fish like snapper doesn`t really need to marinade long...maybe 20 minutes? But more dense fish like tuna or mahi mahi will take about an hour to "cook". Today I am using mahi mahi. And don't worry if it sits overnight or even for another day.  It will be fine.
 

The other thing to remember is to chop the rest of your ingredients in the same sized dice as the fish. That way you get a nice consistent sized bite. As for what you add to the fish...that is up to you.

The ancient Incas merely added chili pepper, salt and citrus. For my variation today I am adding avocado, tomatillo, red onion, jicima and some red pepper for colour.  This really extends the small amount of fish.  Oh...and I added cilantro.  I love cilantro. Same as Gwynie P. ;-)

Ok..so what are tomatillos and jicama, right?  Well, this is tomatillo...they are really like a small green Mexican tomato. They are quite tart and have a texture more like an apple than a tomato. Love them. But please...if you can't find them just use a regular tomato. The tomatillos you get in a can will not work well.

Jicima (said hee-kah-mah) is a Mexican tubor that grows on the root of a climbing pea plant.  It looks a bit like a turnip, and has a crisp off-white centre that - again - has a texture rather like an apple but tastes kind of like a potato, but a bit sweet.  Actually, I would say it really is kind of like a cross between a very mild apple and a potato.  An apple potato basically.  Whatever it is it adds a nice crunch to salads and can be eaten raw.

That's a jicima beside the red onion.  It actually goes pretty far so I am going to try to make a slaw with it later in the week. Stay tuned!

What you need:

200g fresh fish, diced
1/2 ripe avocado, diced
Small piece of red onion (about 1/4 cup), diced
1 tomatillo, diced
1/4 small jicima, peeled and diced
1/4 cup cilantro, washed and diced

Juice of 1 lime
1/4 tsp sea salt

What to do:

Chop all of your ingredients into a 1/4 inch dice.

Combine in a large bowl. Sprinkle with salt and cilantro. Cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Serve with nacho or plantain chips.

Or, as you will see in another post that will come up shortly, I have become "Inspirilized" and use my Spiralizer quite a bit lately to make zucchini and cucumber spaghetti.  I am going to serve this over my vege-ghetti.