Ceviche

Ingredients

• Sashimi-grade white fish — in 2 cm cubes600 g
• Limes — juiced10
• Red onion — sliced paper-thin1
• Ají limo or rocoto1
• Coriander4 sprig
• Sweet potato — boiled1
• Choclo corn — boiled150 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the sliced onion in iced water for ten minutes and pat it dry: the harshness goes, the flavour stays.

   10 min

2. 2

   Squeeze the limes by hand rather than in a press: pressure on the skin releases bitter oils.

   5 min

3. 3

   Salt the fish, mix it with the chopped ají and coriander, pour the lime over and leave it exactly three to five minutes. The edges turn opaque and the middle stays translucent.

   5 min

4. 4

   Add the onion, toss once and serve at once with the sweet potato and corn. Pour the juice from the bowl into small glasses.

   2 min

About the dish

Modern Peruvian ceviche marinates for two to ten minutes. The long soak belongs to an older version of the recipe; after the Japanese influence, Peru came to prize fish still raw in the middle.

The juice left in the bowl is called leche de tigre and drunk on its own. It is not a leftover but part of the dish: all the heat, acid and fish flavour ends up in it.

The fish has to be fish you would eat raw. Lime changes the protein but does not kill parasites — for that you either trust the fishmonger or freeze it first.

Worth knowing

• — The sweet potato is a counterweight rather than a side: its sweetness blunts the acid, and without it ceviche tires the palate fast.
• — Everything should be cold — the bowl, the fish, the lime. Warm ceviche loses its texture within a minute.
• — If the fish is not from a source you trust, freeze it at −20 °C for at least a day. Lime is no defence against parasites.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

290 kcal

Protein

34 g

Fat

3 g

Carbs

30 g

More from Peru

• Lomo saltado — Beef seared in a wok with onion and tomato, served with both chips and rice at once.