This year Spring has taken its sweet time to finally arrive and has come hand in hand with an early Summer season that is promising to be scorched-earth hot, as the thermometer keeps rising consistently with every day that goes by. It is the perfect day to enjoy Mexican-Style Ceviche, 4 Ways!
Humidity and pesky mosquitoes add insult to injury. The transition between winter and spring was kind of wet so it is apparently destined to be a swarm-mosquito hot season.
So, all that is to say that the last thing in my mind right now is baking or cooking stuff on the stove top. Mexican-Style Ceviche, 4 Ways is an extremely refreshing and nourishing dish loaded with healthy ingredients to boot. Also, the fact that fixing this one will not involve any source of heat is an advantage not to be ignored.
Ceviche (also spelled Cebiche) is a popular dish in many countries of Latin America. In Mexico alone there are as many recipes as there are states. We will prepare a basic recipe and I will list for you four different versions achieved with the addition of a few more very simple and available ingredients.
The following factors need to be taken into consideration as well to make the perfect Ceviche:
1) Use the freshest fish available. Fresh fish should smell of sea. If it’s smells “stinky fishy”, it’s not fresh. Touch it, it should be firm and if you are going to fillet a whole fish, look at the fish eyes; they shouldn’t be “foggy” or glazy. The more life-like your fish looks, the fresher it will be.
2) Keep your fresh fish in the fridge until you are ready to dice it. Add the lemon to marinate it and return to the fridge. Some people go to lengths to maintain their fish fresh keeping it in ice, even when it’s inside of the fridge. It will be the best Ceviche of your life if you use the freshest, better preserved fish.
3) Do not over marinate: soak the fish with enough lemon to just cover it and let it sit 20 – 25 minutes tops.
4) There is the misconception that lime juice “cooks” the fish. It doesn’t. The texture on the surface will undergo some chemical/texture changes. But it is not cooked, it is raw; be aware of this.
5) Do not use fatty fish like mackerel, salmon or tuna. The ideal fish is white, semi-firm fish like flounder or grouper. Freshwater fish is not ideal for ceviche but you know what they say, the exception confirms the rule: the only fish I had available was catfish and I was a little wary; I was, however, pleasantly surprised with the final result.
6) Keep vegetables and fish apart until you’re ready to serve.
Ingredients
- 1 lbs. of fresh white, semi-firm sea fish fillets, diced (to bite-size pieces)
- 4 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
- 1 cup of lime juice
- ½ cup chopped cilantro (use leaves only)
- 1 serrano chile, deveined, seeded and chopped (you can use pickled “rajas” instead)
- ½ red onion, finely chopped
- 1 TBSP olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Marinate fish in lime juice for 20 minute, gently stirring it often so that it marinates evenly. You can discard the lime juice once the fish has been marinated or keep it, like I did. Mix well with the rest of the ingredients when you’re ready to serve.
- Eat with tortilla chips, as tostada topping or with saltine crackers. Spice it up with some Valentina, Huichol, Habanero or Tapatio bottled salsas (you can find those at the grocery store).
- Make it Veracruz-style:
- To above ingredients add ½ cup of sliced green olives, 1 TBSP of capers and 1 TSP dried oregano. Eat with saltines.
- Make it Sinaloa-style:
- To the above basic ceviche ingredients add 1 medium peeled, seeded and diced cucumber, ½ cup Clamato and 1 chopped avocado when you’re ready to serve. Spread some mayo on your
- tostadas before you top them with ceviche and add a touch of your favorite bottled salsa, (like Valentina, Huichol, Habanero or Tapatio).
- Make it Acapulco-style:
- To the above basic ceviche ingredients add ½ cup of ketchup, ½ cup orange soda (some people add chopped avocado too). Mix well and eat with saltines and your favorite bottled salsa.
- Make it Nayarit-style:
- In this case the fish is not chopped but ground so you can either ask your fishmonger to grind it for you or grind it in your food processor. Marinate fish as per basic recipe instructions (no longer than 25 minutes) and to the basic ingredients add 1 medium peeled, seeded and diced cucumber and 1 peeled and finely shredded carrot. Add one chopped avocado. Eat on tostadas and add your favorite bottled salsa.
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