I just recently had my first Peruvian experience in the kitchen when I helped out as a kitchen porter at the Peruvian pop-up restaurant Limanation. There, the soon opening Peruvian restaurant Ceviche organized a pop-up experience to spread the word about their vision of Peruvian cuisine. This recipe was part of the menu and after you tasted it, you wouldn’t believe how simple and quick this is actually to make. Look out for another pop-up from the Ceviche team and book your place to enjoy some authentic and delicious Peruvian cuisine. Visit Ceviche UK’s website for further information.
Serves 4 as a starter
Prep Time: 15 mins
For the Ceviche:
- 6 medium sea bass fillets
- Juice of 10 limes
- 1 yellow aji amarillo chilli, finely chopped (alternatively use green chili)
- bunch of coriander, finely chopped (save some leaves for presentation)
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
- 1 thumbsize piece of ginger, grated
- 1-2 red onion(s)
- Handful of crushed ice
- Ground white pepper
- Salt
For the sweet potato crisps:
- 1 large sweet potato
- Flavourless oil for frying
Eqipment:
- Medium plastic bowl
- Cling film
- Peeler
- Fryer or large pan to fry
Recipe:
If the sea bass fillets are not already skinned, remove the skin and then wash them. Cut along the middle line and remove it. Then cut the fillet pieces into 5-7 mm thick slices and place them into a plastic bowl. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge until needed.
Squeeze the limes and collect the juice in a container.
Peel the onion(s) and half them. Take out the inner heart and thinly slice them. Put them into a small bowl with water so the slices will separate.
For the crisps, peel the sweet potato. Then, again using the peeler, peel off crisps from the potato. This is an easy way to get very thin slices without any fancy kitchen equipment. Soak them in water if you leave them for a longer while to prevent them from turning brown.
Then heat up a large amount of oil in a pan or use a fryer. If the oil is hot enough (you can test that by holding one of the potato slices in it – it should bubble a lot around the potato), add a few of the potato slices and fry them. Stir in the oil a bit with a stick or something similar, so the slices won’t stick together. After about 1 minute, they should be done. Be careful not to burn them, because they fry very quickly. Then put them on some kitchen towel to get rid of any excess oil. Repeat this process until you fried all of the potato slices.
Then, shortly before serving the ceviche, first add the dry ingredients to the fish. A pinch of salt and white pepper, a little bit of the chopped coriander (not all), the chili and the ginger and garlic. Mix with the fish and let it stand for about a minute.
Then, add the lime juice to the fish and let it stand for about 3-4 minutes. Mix it well with the fish so every piece of fish is getting some of the lime juice. When you see some of the fish slowly turning white, add the onions and the ice to take away some of the acidity of the lime. Mix everything together very well, add the rest of the chopped coriander and let it stand for another 2-3 minutes.
Then serve in a bowl and garnish with the crisps and some coriander leaves.
