Ceviche - Does anyone want to share a favourite recipe?

[taxlady]

Are you close to Montreal? Have you never been to a fishmonger. Anyway there's plenty of fresh fish (never frozen) to be had, it's more expensive. In a restaurant setting where a reputation for freshness and made from scratch the last thing you need is to have your brain fall out of your head and serve previously frozen ceviche.

Personally I wouldn't bother making ceviche if the fish had been frozen for a few reasons. First, the texture is not the same and after adding an acid like lime it's really noticeable as the fish gets tougher. Frozen fish, even flash frozen the ice crystals that form within their cell structures loose this water making the fish dryer, tougher and less malleable. Also visually, fresh fish is bright and translucent looking compared to previously frozen and a side by side comparison it's pretty obvious. Although I'm always surprised how many "fine dining" places are using frozen. I always ask the waiter if the ceviche is from fresh fish and if they weren't sure, to then go ask. This of course is just my opinion.

Why yes, I do live near Montreal. Yes, I have been to fish mongers here, but I can't stay in them very long because of the smell. I lived in Copenhagen for five years. In Copenhagen you can get fish caught the day or day before you buy it. I'm very picky about the freshness of the fish I eat. I really don't want the fish to smell of harbour. The fish mongers I went to in Copenhagen certainly smelled of fish, but not harbour. Fish smell, to me, is a strong aroma, not unpleasant. I would rather have the slight change in texture and possibly loss of brightness of the flavour that comes with freezing, than smell harbour. Maybe I'm just especially sensitive to that smell.

I find that frozen salmon works very well for gravad laks. With no previous experience with ceviche, I guess I'll find out when I try to make some.

 

[taxlady]

what other ways is that? are you talking about smoking/drying?

I know about drying, but have no familiarity. There's cured fish, like gravad laks AKA gravlax. There's smoked. There's pickled with vinegar, like pickled herring. There's fermented fish, but other than Asian fish sauce, I haven't had fermented fish. I'm sure there are other methods that I don't know about.

 

[dragnlaw]

I suggest you go to a reliable restaurant and try some. You will either love it or be completely turned off.

As to fish mongers, my BIL (who is Jamaican) has no problem frequenting them. He has traveled pretty much all over the world and no matter where he is, goes down to the docks early mornings to get fish off the boats.
LOL, he's even taught some South Pacific Islander's how to enjoy parts of the fish they regularly threw away!

So, needless to say, if he thinks their fish is fresh - yup, even coming in on an overnight truck from the coast. I can't talk about how the shop itself smells, never been but if you know your fish, you'll know when it's fresh. It's the fish that you smell, not the floor, as washed as it may be.

 

[medtran49]

Conch is hard to get outside of Florida, and like octopus, hard to cook. It can be tender, or like chewing rubber bands.

No it's not. A fishmonger of any size is going to have it or can get it. As I wrote, it's ALWAYS going to be frozen unless you live in an area in the Caribbean where you can take it fresh. Frozen seafood can be shipped just about anywhere.

BTW, abalone can be substituted for conch and vice versa. Abalone is also sold frozen in most places.

 

[medtran49]

I came across a recipe for ceviche. But, it's not from what I consider to be a reliable recipe source.

Ceviche does seem appropriate to the hot weather. Does anyone here have a favourite ceviche recipe that they would be willing to share? If you have saved a recipe that you haven't tried yet, please mention that if you decide to share it here. Thanks in advance.

Did you ever try any of the poke recipes discussed in the past?

Poke

K-girl got me interested in poke and then the Feb 2017 Bon Appetit had several recipes so we decided to try some of them. I've also added in subs and comments for those not familiar with Asian ingredients and a few tips on going to the Asian market at the bottom. The first one we tried was...

www.discusscooking.com

 

[dragnlaw]

medtran thanks for that Link - what a great read!

 

[caseydog]

I suggest you go to a reliable restaurant and try some. You will either love it or be completely turned off.

I don't think it is as binary as that. I like most seafood (love some of it), and ceviche done well is good, although I can't say I ever crave ceviche. Anyone who likes seafood should definitely try it.

CD

 

[taxlady]

Did you ever try any of the poke recipes discussed in the past?

Poke

K-girl got me interested in poke and then the Feb 2017 Bon Appetit had several recipes so we decided to try some of them. I've also added in subs and comments for those not familiar with Asian ingredients and a few tips on going to the Asian market at the bottom. The first one we tried was...

www.discusscooking.com

That old poke thread was an interesting read. No, I have never tried any poke recipes. I have only made gravad laks. None of the poke recipes really appeal to me. Don't get me wrong, I would happily eat them if someone offered them to me or I came across them in a resto.

We did try poke once. We ordered it from Doordash. I found it bland, but I have no idea how good the poke is from that resto, so I will just say that the stuff we had was bland, not that poke is necessarily bland. I do remember having a raw fish appetizer in a Japanese resto, back in the 19770s. I found that bland too.

 

[taxlady]

I went down a rabbit hole reading about poke and other types of raw fish dishes.

I don't really care if the recipe is ceviche. That was the word that came to mind. What I am interested in is recipes that folks here like, for any kind of raw fish, though I don't really need a recipe for gravad laks AKA gravlax. I have a number of those.