Let's Make Cebiche

As you all probably know by now, my wife is from Peru so making cebiche comes natural to her. Its a traditional dish from her home of Peru. This is just pretty good stuff and for those of you wanting to try something a little different, this is for you! We had tried making it here in the USA a couple times before but this was the best by far. We have learned that freshwater fish makes for a not so good cebiche!

You start out by squeezing limes and collecting the juice in a pan like this. You also crush up several garlic cloves and add to the lime juice

You now need to chop up some onions, cilantro and celery and of course cut up the fish filets into small bites

Next slice a red or orange bell pepper, remove the seeds and place with just a little water in the blender and make a smooth "paste"

Now add all of that to the lime juice

 

[willard3]

Sea bass makes great ceviche.....good texture, good taste.

 

[andres]

I used to own a ceviche restaurant here in Guatemala and the fish we used for making ceviche was mahi-mahi (Dorado), grouper (pargo), robalo (sea bass). Conch is also great in ceviche. Anyway, the fish doesn't have to be cooked all the way through.

Only difference here in Guatemala is that we make it with a bit of diced tomato, onion, jalapeno, naranja agria (sour orange), hierbabuena (mint, I believe) and cilantro.

The best ceviche in my opinion is the one made with a mollusk called Casco de Burro (Donkey Hoof). It has a pitch black liqueur and tastes like heaven. I wish I knew what you would call it in english. I just know the scientific name: Grandiarca grandis.

 

[Thanatopsis]

Wow, that sound awesome. I love lime, garlic, cilantro, onion, and seafood. I'm going to be making that some night this week.

 

[fineexampl]

Guys and gals...last page in Chile Pepper magazine is an awesome sounding recipe for a fatalii juice ceviche marinade. Thought you'd all be interested. If i get a minute later on i'll scan the article.

 

[boutros]

I made some ceviche for breakfast. Wanted to see if I could make barracuda work and it actually isn't too bad. Barracuda is gnarley if you don't use it the day you pull it out of the water and the only other way I've had it is in tacos.

Anyway- I passed out after starting to make it last night and it ended up marinating in lime and orange juice all night. I normally do good fresh fish like 3-4 hours.

I just did a generic mix- tomatos, white onion, cilantro, a few Caribbean reds all diced up. I drain the fish out of the marinating mix and add new fresh lime and orange juice mix.

Fish salsa! Good with chips and avocados.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Yeah, overnight is not needed, in restaurants they make it fresh and slice the fish paper thin, toss it, and serve it.

 

[Sickmont]

I'm guessing that marinating it all night in all that citrus should've cooked the fish, correct?

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Yeah, it's not considered raw, the acids cook it. A pink fish will turn white.

 

[boutros]

I'm guessing that marinating it all night in all that citrus should've cooked the fish, correct?

Yep, as THP said. Many ways to make it- not a good food for the heartburn prone though.

 

[4InchFloppy]

I don't think fresh water or salt water matters. But you need a firm flesh fish.

4inchfloppy

Thanks and yes you are correct. Unfortunately we dont have fresh seafood in these parts. Its ashame that fresh water fish wont work

 

[woody3says]

A friend goes fishing for Striper once a year and his wife makes ceviche with it. Excellent!

 

[SumOfMyBits]

Living in Miami with a HUGE latin american influence and fishing culture, I've had my fair share of ceviche. Shrimp, dolphin (mahi mahi / dorado), yellow tail snapper, red snapper, mangrove snapper, grouper, conch... that's a local catch in the waters around South Florida and they all make excellent ceviche.

[Edit: I've never had it with shark, pompano, skate, cobia, mackerel, or permit... but I'd bet they'd all work as well. On a side note, for the best civiche experience, you really want to have the freshest fish you can find.]

I made a ceviche for a seafood throwdown back in August 2010, and it was fantastic.

Ceviche recipe:

1/2 # yellowtail snapper cut into 1/2" cubes
1/2 red onion chopped fine
1 green onion
2 plum tomatoes
1/2 cucumber [edit: 1/2" cubes]
4 limes juiced
2 lemons juiced
1/2 cup orange juice
2 serranos sliced thin w/ seeds
1/2 tsp kosher salt
Mix and let marinate for 1 hour. Mix occasionally.
~ a hand full of chopped cilantro (add and mix directly prior to serving)


To me cilantro is almost a must have ingredient in ceviche, but that's just my taste. Culantro, which is very similar, can also be used.

[The old TD post can be found here http://www.thehotpep...post__p__369358 if anyone is interested in seeing pictures. You'll need to scroll down a bit.]

 

[texas blues]

I don't think I'd use shark, skate, or mackerel Sum. Permit is too valuable a sport fish to be eaten IMO. Pompano and cobia though are both excellent table fare. Any fish with white meat should be good. Dang it! Wish I woulda' bought some redfish I saw at the market yesterday!

 

[SumOfMyBits]

I thought I saw someone else on here mention making ceviche with shark. I'm not sure how that would work out either. And Skate is similar to shark, that was added just for commentary. And I agree, Permit is a valuable sport fish, but anyone with a Florida fishing license is allowed to harvest 6 per day of the proper size, and they are related to Pompano. In fact, they are lumped in with Pompano as an aggregate bag... 6 total. But permit should probably be released, I agree.

Mackerel will probably be "too fishy" for most people's taste. It's MUCH better smoked, IMO.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

Try grouper and monkfish. Both are white dense fish that hold up well to the acid, and very flavorful.

Fixed your link Sum. To link to a post click the post number.

 

[geeme]

That's something I miss - fish fresh enough to make ceviche with. I generally won't make it here for that reason. But watch out, next time I go to the coast!

 

[SumOfMyBits]

Geeme.... If you're wearing Long Heels, Red Bottoms.... watch out for Bear.


And Bear loves Ceviche [just to stay on topic] and apple bottom jeans.

 

[The Hot Pepper]

My local Peruvian joint uses halibut, aji tuna, salmon, red snapper, mussels, crab, or shrimp, or combo.

 

[SumOfMyBits]

Halibut, similar to Flounder, sounds good. I love Salmon. A really BIG fan of it done cedar plank style on the BBQ. Also a big fan of it smoked, but ceviche??? Might be good, never had it that way... would be willing to try it, but I'm a bit skeptical on that one.

It's not "too fishy" for me, just trying to imagine the rest of the flavor profile. I'd have to refer to TB....

 

[The Hot Pepper]

I checked their menu. The salmon ceviche is in "corn, rocoto, and lime sauce." Sounds good to me!

I love this Peruvian joint.