Garden Cerviche

I'm a big fan of the 4-hour+ exotic dishes, but here are some tamer ones that can be pulled off in less time. I'm a native Floridian, but born/raised in Miami, so please forgive my Cuban-Cracker-fusion recipes.

Garden Cerviche

Ingredients:

2 lbs of white fish fillets (I use Chillean sea bass or red snapper....for those up North or non-coastal... halibut, sea bass, tilapia, sole ..would work), cut into small square pieces
2-3 hot peppers, sliced (I use serranos)
4 garlic cloves, crushed
4-5 large shallots, peeled and sliced finely
4 tomatoes (I like Roma's for this), seeded and diced very finely
2 bell peppers, 1 orange and 1 yellow, diced finely
20 limes, separated into about 10 limes to cook the fish and 10 limes for the ceviche marinade
1 bunch of cilantro, chopped as finely as possible
2-3 tbs sunflower oil
Salt to taste



Place the raw fish pieces in a glass dish and cover it with salt, hot peppers, crushed garlic, a tablespoon of chopped cilantro, and lime juice from about 10 limes, the fish should be completely covered by lime juice.

Cover the dish with plastic wrap and chill, let the fish cook itself in the lime juice for at least 4 hours.

Place the sliced shallots in a bowl, cover them with warm water and salt, let rest for at least 10 minutes, drain and rinse well.

Once the fish is “cooked” in the lime juice rinse it well, removing the peppers, garlic and cilantro.

Combine the fish with the shallots, tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro, and lime juice from remaining 10 limes, sunflower oil and salt to taste in a large non-reactive bowl, mix well and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Serve with corn nuts (popcorn works too, if you can't find corn nuts locally)

Note 1;
I usually serve this in margarita glasses with salted rims & break the thin italian breadsticks in half & stick in the glass to look like straws.

Note 2;
There is a lot of choping/dicing by hand involved in this (using a food processor will kill all the "presentation" & "texture" aspects of the dish ...but I guess it would taste the same"). In order to save time though, you can use pre-squeezed lime juice.

In San Juan, they serve it with saltine crackers...sounds cheesy, but it's awesome.

My extended Cuban family in Miami (a.k.a. everyones house I ever ate at...LOL) used to slice corn-on-the-cob into 1/2" sections and serve that with it (heavily buttered and salted).

I think the trick is anything with a crunchy texture & high salt content.

I kinda adopted/substituted the salt rimmed glasses for our dinner friends when we moved up to Central Florida .... so I usually do the salt, or the corn cob/cornnuts/popcorn....but usually not both.

And no .... I usually don't tell them what Cerviche is until after dinner is over

Oh yum !! it is so delicious in this hot weather ! good for you too. I usually use lemons and limes with tomato, onion, avocado, cilantro, and a little rice wine vinegar for a tangy taste. And of course the white fish. Love it ! ok of course now you went and did it , now I have to make some !

My customers in PR were SO impressed when I tucked into the plates of ceviche brought for the table by the owner of the restaurant at which we were eating. I didn't tell them I learned to eat ceviche in the Bahamas when I was a kid.

Sounds wonderful! I love ceviche. What a great recipe. And I would give it a California twist with the avocado, too. But I LOVE the Marguerita glasses presentation.

I miss using avocado, but it's hit or miss on the availability in the stores here in Central Florida & the quality varies wildly, when it is here.

The imported varietys that the stores carry around here just don't cut it when your used to picking a 3-5# one off the tree out back and using it in a salad/dish.

Probably the second thing I miss most about my house in Miami (real Mangoes are #1)

Acara, point your browser here:

http://pickyourown.org/FLwest.htm

And avocados DO grow in your neck of the woods -- I had one that bore fruit in south Hillsborough County (less than an hour from you).. I've seen mangoes and carambola in Pinellas, too -- one of my neighbors had a mango tree that had me plotting how to get my hands on the fruit.

You'd have to shelter it well in the wintertime in WC, but you should be able to grow all of that.