While in Puerto Lopez, a small town on the coast of Ecuador, I went fishing with a local fisherman. After a couple of unsuccessful hours casting hand lines from a small rocking boat we eventually catch enough fish to cook lunch, with plenty spare for dinner.
While bobbing about in the Pacific ocean we spotted two white spouts of water from a mother humpback whale and her calf. We quickly reeled in our lines and raced after them to get a better look at the majestic beasts before turning back for our feast.
Here is the recipe to make a delicious ceviche:
Ingredients
- 2lb of white fish fillets (corvina, halibut, sea bass, tilapia, sole), cut into small square pieces
- 2 red onions diced very finely
- 4 tomatoes diced very finely
- 2 bell peppers, assorted colors, chopped very finely
- ~20 small to medium sized limes, separated into about 10 limes to cook the fish and 10 limes for the ceviche marinade
- 1 bunch of cilantro (also known as coriander) chopped as finely as possible
- A few tablespoons of oil (sunflower, avocado, etc), adjust to taste
- Salt to taste
How to make it
-
Place the raw fish pieces in a glass dish and cover it with salt and lime juice from about 10-12 limes, the fish should be completely covered by lime juice.
- Cover the dish with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator, let the fish marinate or cook itself in the lime juice for 3-4 hours.
- Mix the onions, tomatoes, peppers, and cilantro with the juice from the remaining limes and let marinate for about an hour.
- Once the fish is “cooked” in the lime juice, strain it and remove the liquid it “cooked” in (you can keep it if you want and it include it in the final ceviche, but some find it too acidic). Mix the fish with the lime marinated vegetables, add salt and oil to taste.
- Serve with chifles, patacones, tostones or popcorn.
Catching our lunch and cooking it was an incredible experience and this was probably the best lunch I’ve ever had!!
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