Of all the recetas de comidas for Hispanic food out there, ceviche has to be both one of the favorites and one that most home cooks are afraid of. After all, most other dishes, from emapanadas to flan, are cooked using heat, leaving most cooks feeling that they’ve made something that is safe to eat. Ceviche recipes, on the other hand, make people a bit more nervous. Featuring fresh, raw seafood that is cooked using the acid of citrus juice is somehow seen as a less sure thing, leading to many people avoiding ceviche recipes altogether, as Stylist.co.uk writes. If you’re one of the many who are terrified by the idea of making a terrible ceviche, here are three tips you should follow to make something that is perfectly authentic and delicious.
Three Dos and Don’ts for Perfecting Your Ceviche Recipe
- You Need to Make Sure You Use the Freshest Ingredients Available
- Choice of Fish Matters
- Don’t Let the Ingredients Cure for Too Long
For Huffington Post, there is nothing more important to a great ceviche than the freshness of the ingredients. If you have a local market that sells fresh seafood, that’s the best place to buy your fish, whether you’re looking for shrimp or scallops. Likewise, if you use tomatoes, chili peppers, or any other produce in your ceviche recipe, you should look to your local farmers market for the freshest options available. This point is crucial to both the flavor and safety of your ceviche.
While you’re at the market choosing the freshest fish and produce you can find, you should also consider the type of seafood you’re going to use, as The Guardian suggests. In general, you’ll want to look for a meatier fish that can hold up to the citric acid you’ll be using to “cook” your dish. Haddock, red snapper, scallops, and shrimp all make perfect choices. If you choose something more delicate, there is a good chance you’ll wind up with fish paste — it’ll taste great, but it will still be fish paste.
In some ways, cooking your ceviche is a science. Too long and you’ll either end up with a dish that has the texture of chewing gum or something more like the aforementioned fish paste. Chow, an online food magazine, recommends very specific curing times for each seafood you could use. Octopus, for example, can benefit from being cured overnight, but shrimp will start to turn tough after four hours. Just pay attention to make sure you’re only just getting your seafood to the point of being cooked.
What special tricks do you use to make your ceviche recipe special? Let us know in the comments below! This is a great source for more.
