Peruvian Fish Ceviche

This recipe for Peruvian fish ceviche is preparared with fresh fish, limes, onions, spicy peppers, and fresh cilantro. It usually consists of seafood that is marinated with lime juice, the acidity of the lime juice actually “cooks” the seafood. Not all types of ceviches are made with seafood and not all seafood ceviches are made with raw seafood.

However, the most classic and traditional ceviche is usually made with fish and “cooking” it in lime juice is a must. This is why it’s very important to use extremely fresh and high quality fish to prepare it. We’ve prepared this fish ceviche with corvina but you can also use grouper, halibut, mahi mahi (called dorado in South America), escolar or hamachi.

You can serve your Peruvian cheviche with:

lettuce leaves

Cancha

Fresh boiled corn

Sweet potato: thinly fried or baked chips or boiled thick slices

Chifles or fried green plantain chips

Diced or sliced hot peppers

Olive oil

Lime slices

What do you need

700 gr fresh and high quality fish filets

1 red onion thinly sliced

1 avocado

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1-2 habanero peppers cut in half, without seeds and deveined

2-3 springs of fresh cilantro

Salt to taste

Finely chopped cilantro to taste

How to proceed

• Cut the fish into small cubes, place in a glass bowl and cover with cold water and 1 tablespoon of salt, cover and refrigerate while you prepare the onions and juice the limes.

• Rub the thin onion slices with 1/2 tablespoon of salt and rinse in cold water.

• Rinse the fish to remove the salt

• Place the cubes of fish, half of the sliced onions, and hot peppers in a glass bowl and pour the lime juice over the ingredients. Sprinkle with a little bit of salt. To minimize the acidity of the limes you can put a few ice cubes in the mix.

• Cover and refrigerate for about 5-15 minutes.

• Remove the cilantro sprigs and the hot peppers from the mix. Taste the fish ceviche and add avocado and additional salt if needed.

• Use a spoon to place the ceviche in each serving bowl, add additional sliced onions to each bowl, sprinkle with finely chopped cilantro, and diced or sliced hot peppers.

• Serve immediately with your choice of sides and garnishes.

Note

Soaking the fish in cold salt water helps it keep a firm texture.

Rinsing the onions with salt and cold water helps remove their bitterness.

Adding ice cubes to the cebiche mix helps neutralize the acidity of the limes