Ceviche

Years ago when I was in high school some of my closest friends had a homemade sushi party. I was terrified of eating raw fish, but even more than that, I was NOT going to eat seaweed. I imagined the slimy green stuff on the beach with a whole fish sandwiched in between and, well, no thanks. I was quite the picky eater growing up, but nowadays I’ll try pretty much anything. (More later on the fact that I tried tongue – in the form of a taco – the other night for the first time.)

Ironically, sushi has since become one of my all-time favorite meals. Every week, John and I have “sushi night” at our favorite local restaurant. $10 for three rolls? Yes, please. I would eat it multiple times a week if I weren’t nervous about overdosing on mercury. (No really, does anyone know if there’s such a thing as too much sushi? I’m probably borderline.)

To fix my early-week craving (and because I ate so poorly this past weekend), I opted for a light, healthy ceviche dish for dinner.

What you’ll need:

**I cut this recipe in half; ceviche is the sort of thing you should eat day of. The original recipe is enough for four, I believe.

Directions
Depending on where you live, certain ingredients can be hard to find. New York City, however, should not be experiencing a shortage of fish. We spent over an hour driving around yesterday looking for fresh, bright tuna. Apparently, fish markets do not operate before 12 pm on Sunday, and even then, some stores take pride in selling tuna that is more brown than red. Sad, confused, and lost (figuratively), we opted to hit up our local sushi restaurant for some $1 sashimi. Their tuna is fine (better than fine when I consider it isn’t brown!), but their salmon is outrageously good, so I decided we should use both. Besides, what a lovely color combo!

On the plus side, I know that this fish is safe to eat raw. I’m trying to be more optimistic these days.

Begin by dicing your fish. I think large chunks are appropriate here.

Next, grab your red onion and dice it. To remove some of the intense raw onion flavor, place the onion in a small bowl, cover with water, and let sit for five minutes. Drain and repeat. Add to a bowl along with your capers, garlic, avocado, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of lime juice.

(I like to dice my avocados before taking the skin off. Slice it in half, remove the pit, and create a dice by cutting in opposite directions as shown here. Then, use a spoon to scoop out the perfectly cut avocado.)

*Note, to remove an avocado pit, carefully tap the knife into the pit (being careful not to cut yourself, of course), then twist your knife about 90 degrees. The pit should pop right out.

The original recipe suggests adding a Serrano or jalapeno pepper to the mix, but once again, NY failed me. The store we went to didn’t have either! Ok, no big deal, we could just add a dash or two of some insanely hot chili sauce we picked up months ago at an Asian market. Then I realized we now had wasabi on hand (thank you, Tomo Sushi), so I used some of that instead. Just wait, it gets better.

Add the tuna and salmon to your other ingredients and toss to combine.

Mix your remaining lime juice with olive oil, pour over the ceviche, and let sit in the fridge for 10 minutes. The NY Times suggests leaving this for 15 minutes, but honestly the longer you let the fish sit in acid, the more likely it will turn a nasty brown color.

You can’t have real ceviche without cilantro. Finely chop a big bunch (about ¼ cup) of cilantro.

Wait. That’s.. that’s not cilantro.

I swear the sign at the market said “cilantro”, but…

This smells more like… parsley.

Pause. Take a moment to feel sorry for yourself, then turn to your loving fiancé and mutually agree that someone (ahem) should make a run to the store to get cilantro, because as we already established “you can’t have real ceviche without cilantro.”

Apologize in advance because it’s raining (and hey, this is NY, so he’s walking to the store), and make sure he documents his journey. Promising him some sort of chocolatey dessert for being so kind won’t hurt, either.

How convenient that only a few blocks away resides our lovely Veggie Monster? Thanks, John!

Where were we?

Throw the chopped parsley away (it’s always been my least favorite herb, anyway) and bring on the cilantro!

Just before serving, toss the ceviche with cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning, divide between two bowls, and enjoy!

This was tasty, but we both agreed it wasn’t a “wow” dish. I liked that it was healthy and had a kick from the wasabi, and let’s face it, avocados and seafood were made for each other, but the capers may have been out of place.

Don’t feel too bad for us, though. Our molten chocolate cakes with fresh whipped cream more than made up for dinner.