Peruvian Ceviches: Background and Recipes

My husband's middle niece Eve recently purchased a time-share down in Belize. Between my brother-in-law and his daughter Eve's reports, we've been enjoying their extended vacations with a detailed daily report on the sunshine, beaches, and awesome locally prepared food. One thing that caught my eye was the descriptions of their chef's ceviches. Marinated shrimp and/or scallops can be used. More appropriate for our family were Eve's yummy reviews of the firm white fish prepared for lunches and evening meals. Our local whitefish is plentiful, relatively inexpensive and easily substituted for the corvina, red snapper, or grouper originally described. As many recipes emphasize, it is the flavor of the marinade and accompanying ingredients that distinguish different ceviches, not the fish (or seafood.) One Peruvian rendition recommended serving the healthy sweet potato or sweet corn on the cob (common to some Native American recipes) in my area. This replaced white potatoes at my dinner table. The lime, lemon, or (sour) orange juice-based marinades perk up winter's taste-buds after a "comfort-food" based holiday menu. We opened the New Year with ceviches -- fun to prepare, interesting, and an extremely appetizing to our 2008 foreign food repetoire of recipes!

The first thing I did was look up the History of Ceviches. I noticed there's a variety of spellings, and Wikipedia indicates an Arabic and/or Spanish origin from escabeche (marinade in Spanish.) The origin of the basic recipe seems to have originated with the Viceroyalty of Peru, a colonial administrative district, governed from Lima. Older recipes allowed the fish to marinade for hours, while modern renditions cut this time to mixing the ingredients and carrying it out to the table! Yes, the fish is served with no cooking involved! You may not be a fan of sushi, but the ceviche is worth a try. Firm, fresh, and a mild whitefish is essential to the success of the chef's presentation. The dish itself is a delight to view. The colorful accompanying vegetables enhance your plate and tempt the palate. Be bold...expand your horizons! Try something unique and fresh on the dinner table this season.

My first suggested recipe is the one we enjoyed most, and it's more authentic to the origins of ceviches described above. Notice that it requires the 2-3 hour marinade period. Remember to get your fish from a market guaranteed to offer a fresh, topnotch product. Tilapia, bass, Great Lakes whitefish, red snapper, and grouper are possible fish to use. When in doubt, describe the recipe and ask advice from your fish monger.

Recipe for Traditional Peruvian Ceviche
1-2 lbs firm white fish fillets, cubed 6-12 chopped garlic cloves 1/2-1 tsp salt 1/2-1 tsp freshly ground black pepper 1-2 tsp fresh parsley or cilantro, chopped 1 habanero pepper, seeded and chopped 6-12 limes, freshly squeezed and strained to remove pulp,enough to cover fish 1 red onion (slice thinly)

Combine all ingredients except red onion and mix well. Place the red onion on top, Marinate 2-3 hours in the refrigerator. Before serving, mix well. Serve with a lettuce base, and offer avacado, corn, cold, cooked sweet potatoes, salad vegetables, or avocado or other cold salad vegetables on the side.

IMPORTANT NOTE: (Use a juicer, gently. Don't tear the lime sections'membranes. It makes lime juice bitter)

The range of ingredients I've included allows you to cut the recipe short for a smaller group (2-3 people) or expand it out for up to 6 people. My husband and I often eat food alone; however, we can easily adapt the recipe for up to 4 guests on short notice.

Another recipe we like was reported by Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken in their Gourmet Sleuth website, which you can review at http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/ceviche.htm Check out my links for an additional shortcut. Basically, the adventurous ladies suggest cutting the marinade time down to 15 minutes, and they add tomato, bottled clam juice and a different type pepper. Their particular recipe required red snapper fillets, and the result was very appetizing! The linked information expands nicely on the basic highlights of the history of cerviches, and is quite well written and informative. You'll also discover a nice recipe for an Ecuadoran originated ceviche, using briefly cooked shrimp in lieu of the white fish. Please take a look at this "highly recommended" on-line base for recipes.

At What's Cooking America ( http://whatscookingamerica.net/History/CevicheNotes.htm ,) you'll find a gorgeous photo of a shrimp ceviche, reader introduced recipes and local stories. One of their suggestions that I immediately incorporated into our ceviche meals was the tortilla. My husband simply cannot abandon bread at his meal, and the warmed tortillas are especially nice in the winter months, up north. The shrimp ceviche is an easy substitute for any shrimp cocktail appetizer. Try serving it in a martini glass. It makes for a lovely look and easy clean-up!

Other cooks use octopus, shark, scallops, and even ketchup in the marinade! We preferred cocktail sauce in lieu of ketchup, while the shellfish and shark are a bit too pricey for the Upper Midwest markets where I reside. For us, sticking to shrimp, tilapia, and local whitefish works best. Since we've enjoyed our first few experiments so much, I'm confident that we'll be expanding the horizons of our appetite for this unusual, fresh-tasting recipe as the year of 2008 progresses.