Ceviche

Ingredients

• 600 g very fresh sea bass or bream, skinned
• juice of 8 limes
• 1 red onion, sliced paper-thin
• 2 tbsp ají amarillo paste
• 1 small garlic clove, grated
• 10 g ginger, grated
• a big handful of coriander, stalks kept
• 400 g sweet potato, boiled and sliced
• 150 g large-kernel corn, boiled
• salt

Method

1. The fish decides everything

   Use fish fresh enough to eat raw, and keep it refrigerator-cold throughout. Cut it into even 2 cm cubes with a very sharp knife — ragged edges go mushy in the acid.

2. Rinse the onion

   Slice the onion as thinly as you can and rinse it under cold water for a minute, then dry it. Raw red onion in lime juice is otherwise overpowering.

3. Make leche de tigre

   Blend the lime juice with the ají amarillo, garlic, ginger, coriander stalks, salt and a couple of cubes of the fish until smooth, then strain. This tiger's milk is the marinade and the sauce, and blending a little fish into it is what gives it body.

4. Marinate for minutes, not hours

   Pour the leche de tigre over the fish and stir once. Three to five minutes is all it takes — the surface turns opaque and the centre stays translucent. Left for an hour, the acid cooks it through to chalk.

   4 min

5. Add the onion last

   Fold in the onion and coriander leaves right at the end, so the onion keeps its crunch.

6. Serve immediately

   Serve with the sweet potato and corn on the side, spooning plenty of the marinade over. Ceviche does not keep for even half an hour — make it when everyone is already at the table.