Simple Salmon Ceviche

When we get a side of fish, like salmon for gravlax and dinner, I trim off the thin and unruly bits and make quick ceviche -- fish "cooked" in lime juice. We had lots of little bits that weren't the right shape for our potato-chip crusted salmon, so we whipped this up. It takes just a few minutes to assemble and is ready to eat in 30 minutes.

Here, we added some pimientos de padron for a bit of heat, dust with charcoal salt for dramatic service, and accompany with some lovely Pisco from the home of both ceviche and Pisco -- Peru.

Cut the fish into small chunks or thin strips. You want something you can eat in a bite, perhaps even fit on a tortilla chip. Dice or slice up some chili peppers if you're so inclined, possibly even a little onion. Place this into a bowl, or better, a zip-top bag sitting in a bowl (in case of leaks).

Squeeze enough limes to cover all the fish with the juice. Holding the fish in the bag allows you to maximize coverage with minimum wasted juice.

Seal it up, and put it in the fridge to "cook". I think 30 minute is probably the minimum it needs to turn the floppy raw fish into a more substantial meaty flesh.  If you let it sit too long it can get a bit over-cooked and grainy, and take on too much of the lime juice flavor: you want the taste of fish, not limeade. (A citrus soak isn't "cooking" in the normal sense, but it does denature the proteins, which is also an effect heat has on meats.)

Strain the juice off the fish -- and save it!  This manly elixer is called "leche de tigre" (tiger's milk) and when drunk, "makes you strong like bull".  I like it with a shot of tequila, even for breakfast; it's a bracing way to start the day.

You can serve the fish by itself, like we did. In Peru, they serve it with fried corn kernels called Cancha, and the saltiness plays off the bite of the citrus. We've served it with tortilla chips that have the same salty, corny goodness.

We do this with just about any saltwater fish we happen to be working with at home.

Aguaymanto: my new favorite fruit

Irene's work with the World Bank brought her to Peru, where they put on a fiesta in the Parque de Reserva -- famous for its fountains.

They put on a huge spread of Peruvian food at multiple tents throughout the park

including a bunch of fruits I'd never seen.   I was really impressed by a small orange fruit about the size of a grape but with a papery husk like a tomatillo -- it was firm and tart with an intense citrus taste.  I wasn't able to get its name.

Yesterday, on a long walk along the coast we came across a municipal market and some of the vendors were selling them -- success!   I asked the name, and had to have him repeat it a couple times: "Aguaymanto".  As I tried to pronounce it, the vendor said "gooseberry", which Irene had said earlier, "cape gooseberry". At 8 sols (under $3) for a quart, they are a bargain.

Wikipedia tells us the fruit's native to Peru, and has a variety of names including Inca berry and Aztek berry, but doesn't tell us the name that local Peruanos use, and we find on the Cooking in Peru site.

At last night's dinner, we started with a Pisco Sour made with pisco that had been macerated with Aguaymanto -- the bright citrus edge was a welcome addition to the drink.