Ceviche Night

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Ceviche is a perfect weeknight summer supper. It’s light, healthy, and comes together quickly as there is no cooking involved. Throw the ingredients together in a pretty bowl and carry it out to your patio. You can enjoy a glass of rose while the fish “cooks” in the lime juice. If you are thinking about having a ceviche night, keep reading for an overview of the ceviche making process, a recipe, and suggestions on how to serve it!

Ceviche Overview

Ceviche is a dish made with raw seafood, citrus juice, and a mix of chopped veggies, fruit, and herbs. The citrus juice will “cook” the fish so you don’t have too! This dish is typically associated with Mexico or Central and South America. Peru is the country probably best known for ceviche -it’s their national dish!

Making Ceviche

Ceviche requires quality FRESH seafood.  Several varieties of fish and shellfish work well. Below are some options I recommend (and some options I don’t). Of the good fish, I look for what is freshest (and on sale). The quality of the seafood is important as lime juice will not kill all bacteria and parasites – it needs to be fresh or properly frozen for safety. Talk to your local fish monger about what they recommend for ceviche.

Good civeche fish are generally white-fleshed ocean fish and certain shellfish. I like:

• Flounder
• Snapper
• Sole
• Grouper
• Sea Bass
• Halibut
• Tuna (some recommend against this one but I love it)
• Shrimp and Scallops.

Bad civeche fish include oily fish and  freshwater fish.   Avoid:

• Mackeral
• Trout
• Catfish (please don’t use catfish)
• Tilapia

Next you will need a mix of chopped fruit and veggies. Popular choices include tomatos, avocados, bell peppers (I like yellow), hot peppers such as jalapenos or habaneros, cucumbers, onion, mango, pineapple, peaches, etc. I experiment with all kinds of ingredients but try to keep each recipe fairly simple – it’s like making a salsa.

Herbs and citrus are the last ingredients. Cilantro is the most popular herb but parsley, mint, and chives can work will too. For citrus, lime is most popular but you can experiment with lemon and even orange if you like. A good rule of thumb is that you will need at least ½ cup of citrus juice for each pound of fish – more if you are going heavy on veggies. A bit of olive oil is also typically added.

For me the biggest challenge with civeche is knowing how long to let the fish marinate. I’ve seen many recipes calling for as little as 5-10 minutes claiming you can overcook the fish if you let it sit longer. However, for each of these there appears to be an equal and opposite recipe claiming the fish should sit for at least 2 hours and sometimes as much as 6. I turned to one of my favorite blogs, Serious Eats for answers and found a recommended range of 15- 30 minutes. Check out this post for the food lab’s scientific look at how the fish changes at different marinading intervals!

If you are not up for inventing your own ceviche recipe here is one of my favorite creations. It features scallops, peaches, and a habanero pepper among other things. I like habenaros because they have a fruity essence and pack a little heat without overwhelming. I’ve also included a chopped cucumber salad that I like to serve with ceviche – also quick and easy to make. If you want to add a starch, you can pair your ceviche with chips or tortillas. Ceviche paired with chips is also a great appetizer.

Cooking note: Dice the onion and hot pepper pretty finely. Then try to dice all your other fruits and veggies to roughly the same size – it will make for a better consistency. Dice the scallops to your preferred size – my preferred size is shown below.

Spicy Peach and Scallop Ceviche with Cucumber Chopped Salad

• Author: Sarah John
• Yield: 2 -4 1x

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Description

Scallop ceviche

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Ceviche

• ½ lb sea scallops
• ⅓ cup lime juice
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• ¼ tsp all spice
• 1 habanero pepper, finely diced
• ⅓ cup red onion, finely diced
• ½ yellow bell pepper, diced
• 1 peach, diced (I like white peach for this but yellow works too)
• 1 medium tomato, seeded and diced
• ⅓ cup cilantro, chopped
• ¼ cup chives, finely chopped (optional)
• 2–3 radishes, thinly sliced (optional)

Cucumber Chopped Salad

• 1 avocado, chopped
• 1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
• 1 can hearts of palm*, chopped
• 1–2 tbsp olive oil
• 1–2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste
• *notes: canned hearts of palm can be expensive in grocery stores ($5 dollars or more a can).
• Whole foods 365 brand is usually relatively cheap (around $2.40). You can look online too.

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Instructions

Ceviche

1. Combine chopped scallops, lime juice, lemon juice, and zest in medium size bowl (not metal)
2. Add sugar and allspice
3. Let sit for 10 minutes
4. Add remaining ingredients
5. Wait at least 30 minutes more, scallops will form a firm white appearance and lose their transparent quality

Cucumber Chopped Salad

1. Combine cucumber, avocado, and hearts of palm in medium bowl
2. Toss with olive oil and rice wine vinegar
3. Season with salt and pepper to taste

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Enjoy your ceviche night!