Ceviche is a tasty dish that seems to originate in Spain. “Seems” is the word here because it’s not certain when and where exactly ceviche was first invented. Credited, however, with introducing this food to the world is ancient Peru.
According to word of mouth, ceviche was invented for an Incan emperor that wanted to enjoy his fresh fish, so his cooks had it prepared in tumbo fruit or banana passionfruit, which helped keep the fish fresh. Tumbo is a fruit commonly found in Peru nowadays as it was back in ancient times.
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But, of course, this is only one of the theories of ceviche origin. The food has just as many chances of coming from Peru as in originating in North Africa. Some food scholars believe that it may have been the Moorish slave cooks who first prepared a version of the dish and passed the recipe on to the Peruvian cooks during their travels.
Bottom line is that ceviche is an old recipe that people all over the world now enjoy thoroughly, thus, to whoever invented it, thank you.
Why you should make ceviche too
Ceviche is good. It’s a dish that cools during a hot summer’s day. It’s flavorful, and it’s easy to make.
Top ingredients for making ceviche only include a handful: fish, salt, lime juice, onions and hot peppers. That is what the traditional recipe calls for anyway. People, of course, add or exclude ingredients from the recipe to create their own version and accommodate personal taste.
To make ceviche, you first need to prepare the marinade.
- Because the marinade for the dish has to be acidic, most people choose lemon or lime juice since these two fruits have a high acid content. Other people prefer oranges or grapefruits for added flavor.
When marinated the fish absorbs the flavor in the ingredients and becomes firm and opaque due to being exposed to the acid in the fruit. The more the fish is left to marinate the stronger the flavor and the firmer the fish becomes.
Fish can be marinated overnight or served immediately after immersed in the marinade.
Note: ceviche is known to cure bad hangovers, thus another reason to prepare often, or as often as needed.
Is there a specific fish to use?
The great thing about ceviche is that it can be made with various types of fish and most people usually choose the freshest fish available locally or the one most commonly found. Some options include tuna, shrimp, tilapia, salmon, red snapper, and corvina.
There are also variations to ceviche. The food is made in so many places, and each variation comes with something particular.
- In Mexico, for example, ceviche is made two ways. There is the dry version in addition to the ceviche made the usual way. Dry ceviche requires draining the fish from the marinade and having it served with chips or inside tacos.
- In Panama, ceviche is prepared with very hot peppers and has onions, parsley, and vinegar added to the standard recipe.
Regardless of the different cooking styles, ceviche is the seafood dish that you must try if you haven’t already.
Even if you’ve never had raw fish before, you needn’t worry. Marinating is actually a chemical process much like heat-cooking, so although you’re not technically cooking the fish, you get a similar result.
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That’s why many people refer to marinating the fish as cooking, but while the proteins in the food do coagulate and the flesh becomes firm to touch, it’s not actually cooking it.