Ceviche is a wonderfully fresh fish dish from Latin America. Essentially, it’s pieces of raw fish in a citrus marinade, the acidity in the marinade producing a similar effect as cooking with heat. The citrus juice causes proteins in the fish to solidify, making the flesh appear opaque and firmer, although not as firm as if it had been cooked, and it also changes the flavour less. It was Martin Morales, the British-Peruvian chef at Ceviche restaurant in London, who taught me how to prepare ceviche. Martin is typical of the new generation of chefs, so naturally his food is all about eating well, but he also sees gastronomy as part of a much greater, artistic world. Martin is a DJ too, and exhibits Peruvian art in his restaurant. He’s concerned about the future and only works with sustainable ingredients, even though these are not always easy to come by, such as Peruvian amarillo peppers, which Martin always uses in his ceviche marinade. Other peppers are fine, as long as the marinade is nice and spicy. In Peru they call this marinade ‘tiger’s milk’ and sometimes they drink it with a shot of pisco (Peruvian liqueur), when it becomes ‘panther’s milk’. It’s reputed to make men more potent.
Ingredients
- ½ red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tomato, quartered, deseeded and thinly sliced
- 1 chilli (chile), deseeded and thinly sliced
- 4 limes
- 1 -cm/½-inch piece of fresh root ginger, peeled
- 1 garlic clove, peeled and left whole
- 4 sprigs of coriander (cilantro), leaves pulled off the
- stalks and both leaves and stalks reserved
- ½ tsp amarillo paste (or another yellow chilli paste)
- 2 tsp fish stock
- 1 tsp evaporated milk
- about 300 g/10 oz cod fillet, skinned
- 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
- ½ sweet potato, peeled, boiled and diced
- 2 tbsp pomegranate seeds salt
- Mix the red onion, tomato and chilli (chile) slices together in a bowl. In Peru, they often slice onions from top to bottom instead of ‘across the equator’. Put the bowl in the freezer to make the slices nice and crisp.
- Squeeze the juice of 3 limes into a large bowl and add the ginger, garlic and coriander (cilantro) stalks to the juice. Set aside for 5–10 minutes so the flavours have time to develop. Remove the ginger, garlic and coriander and add ¼ teaspoon of salt and the amarillo paste to the bowl. Stir in the fish stock and evaporated milk (don’t use fresh milk or it may curdle) to make the tiger’s milk marinade less acidic, and mix well. Add the fish and leave to marinate for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mix in the avocado and sweet potato.
- Take the bowl containing the onion, tomato and chilli out of the freezer and squeeze in the juice from the remaining lime. Mix in the coriander leaves and season to taste with salt.
- Serve the ceviche in a dish or on a plate. Sprinkle the pomegranate seeds over the top and then the tomato, onion and chilli salad.
