That to me illustrates pretty nicely that “ceviche” can range anywhere from appetizer / TexMex - level snack food all the way to fine-dining level food. Like I say, I’ve been lucky enough to eat some of the very best.
Yeah, I subscribe to the “maker it your own” philosophy.
And I’ll be dead ass with ya, I have never made traditional ceviche. I bought 2 red onions today, and will only be using 1& 1/2 for the chili. Can you hook a homie up with a good receipt? (The picture only has sweet onions.)
No probs. I think I already shared some of that article somewhere, but I did some more work on it, which is here:
MARINADE: Prepare it in advance. For general purposes, that would involve squeezing a bunch of (key) limes (and maybe a lemon or two, to taste) into a good-sized container, then adding thinly-sliced red onions and thinly-sliced fresh peppers, as hot as you can stand. For me that’s habaneros, for someone else that might be jalapeños, for someone else it might ghost peppers.
Let that sit in the fridge at least a day to completely saturate the onion and chilis, as well as merge their flavors.
In the meantime, try to find a local place that has tasty cilantro. I suspect growing conditions are the main factor in that, and I’ve found that some cilantro is almost flavorless, while some has more of that classic ‘zest.’ Note that if you’re a sufferer of that cilantro-tastes-like-metal gene, then you’ll have to skip it, but possibly you might enjoy a substitute; perhaps fresh basil or mint.
Regardless of what you do next, you’ve just created a batch of a lovely garnish that you can add to loads of things… sort of a hot sauerkraut alternative, but fresher-tasting, and without the salt!
When ‘cooking,’ put the seafood in a separate container and pour marinade to completely cover it. Always keep the main marinade container separate from the fish. Never re-use marinade, altho you can immediately enjoy used marinade as something called “leche de tigre” as a sort of cocktail.
SELECTING YOUR SEAFOOD. With many ceviches, a whitefish is used so as to create more of a low-key, uniform taste, but with many others, the sky’s the limit.
The KEY, though, is in the slicing-to-marinade-time. With the “average fish,” let’s say, if you slice it thinly, then it will only need ~5min of marinade time. If you slice it in to cubes (a popular method), then it will need to marinade longer.
If a seafood marinades too long, then it will lose more of it’s ‘fresh’ taste, so that’s why it’s good to stay in certain pocket of slicing-to-marinade-time, which of course requires experience.
FOOD SAFETY. Wild animals tend to be riddled with parasites, which is part of the reason why fires and cooking were such a major advancement for sapiens. The fact that we could cook / sanitize the animal flesh that we ate, plus make the veggies we ate safer to eat. Likewise with ceviche, it’s important to find seafood that’s first been deep-freezed, before selling. That’s actually just standard practice for grocery stores, even if consumers never had a clue. But try to verify that with your seller, whenever possible.
Note that parasites that affect fish are not necessarily the same ones that affect humans. Those are probably in the minority, I suppose. But always better to be safe than sorry.
One other point of the citrus marinade & hot chilis is to successfully kill off any potential adult parasites, but it’s the deep-freeze process that kills off their eggs.
If one wanted to be ~100% certain to avoid any possible parasites, one could try out canned fish, like tuna or some other mild-ish seafood.
DISCLAIMER: The method above worked for me, but I’m not a long-time ceviche chef. I’m just someone from a certain area where good ceviche is appreciated. Therefore, I’d recommend looking over at least a couple other detailed ceviche recipes, comparing notes so as to understand all the possibilities.
Tell me you at least put some Valentino’s on top!
That to me illustrates pretty nicely that “ceviche” can range anywhere from appetizer / TexMex - level snack food all the way to fine-dining level food. Like I say, I’ve been lucky enough to eat some of the very best.
Yeah, I subscribe to the “maker it your own” philosophy.
And I’ll be dead ass with ya, I have never made traditional ceviche. I bought 2 red onions today, and will only be using 1& 1/2 for the chili. Can you hook a homie up with a good receipt? (The picture only has sweet onions.)
Word, I gotcha.
I started typing up a recipe, and it quickly turned in to an article. Let me get back to you…
(haha, you’ll understand when you read it)
Hey sorry for coming back months later, but I am super curious about that article. I got some cheap salmon flanks I’m looking to experiment with.
No probs. I think I already shared some of that article somewhere, but I did some more work on it, which is here:
MARINADE: Prepare it in advance. For general purposes, that would involve squeezing a bunch of (key) limes (and maybe a lemon or two, to taste) into a good-sized container, then adding thinly-sliced red onions and thinly-sliced fresh peppers, as hot as you can stand. For me that’s habaneros, for someone else that might be jalapeños, for someone else it might ghost peppers.
SELECTING YOUR SEAFOOD. With many ceviches, a whitefish is used so as to create more of a low-key, uniform taste, but with many others, the sky’s the limit.
FOOD SAFETY. Wild animals tend to be riddled with parasites, which is part of the reason why fires and cooking were such a major advancement for sapiens. The fact that we could cook / sanitize the animal flesh that we ate, plus make the veggies we ate safer to eat. Likewise with ceviche, it’s important to find seafood that’s first been deep-freezed, before selling. That’s actually just standard practice for grocery stores, even if consumers never had a clue. But try to verify that with your seller, whenever possible.
DISCLAIMER: The method above worked for me, but I’m not a long-time ceviche chef. I’m just someone from a certain area where good ceviche is appreciated. Therefore, I’d recommend looking over at least a couple other detailed ceviche recipes, comparing notes so as to understand all the possibilities.
Bruh, thank you so much!