How to Make a Delicious Summer Ceviche

Ceviche is a wonderful appetizer or entre for summer! It is loaded with fresh seafood, avocados, and tomatoes. This popular Peruvian dish is made with raw fish or shrimp cured in citrus juice which essentially cooks the seafood. It is light and refreshing.

The first of our favorite ceviche recipes is a traditional ceviche with mild-flavored fish such as halibut, snapper, or bass. The second is a shrimp ceviche.

Tips:

Be sure to buy the fish or shrimp for ceviche from a trusted fish market, like City Fish Market, for food safety. Make sure it passes the nose test! (Fresh seafood should smell salty, like the ocean. It shouldn’t have a pungent odor. )

For optimal freshness, prepare this dish a few hours before serving it. However, you can prepare it up to 24 hours before serving. In that case, make sure to drain out the lime juice immediately after the seafood is done cooking (for fish, about 4 hours; for shrimp, about 2 hours). Then, wait to add the avocado and any additional juice until minutes before serving. Otherwise, the avocado will brown, and the seafood may have a mushy texture and unpleasantly tangy taste.

Classic Ceviche

Ingredients

• 1 pound fresh, skinless white fish fillet, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice (about 10 limes)
• 1 large or 2 small ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 2 medium-large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 to 3 serranos or 1 to 2 jalapeños, stemmed, seeded, and minced
• 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped pitted green olives (manzanillos are best)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice
• Salt to taste

Directions

1. Combine the onion, fish, and lime juice in a glass or stainless steel bowl. (Do not use plastic!) Make sure there is enough juice to cover all of the fish. If there isn’t enough juice, add more until the fish is floating in the juice. (This is essential to ensure all of the fish is cured.) Cover with saran wrap and place in the refrigerator.
2. Remove the fish mixture from the refrigerator once the fish looks cooked and flakes when speared with a fork (about 4 hours). Drain in a colander.
3. Combine the tomatoes, green chiles, olives, and cilantro in a large bowl. Then mix in the fish, onions, and olive oil.
4. Add the avocado. Then pour the orange juice over and salt to taste (typically about ½ teaspoon of salt).
5. Serve immediately over tostadas or tortilla chips.

Shrimp Ceviche

Ingredients

• 1 lb shrimp peeled, deveined, and diced
• 1 cup lime juice (6 – 7 limes)
• 1 cucumber peeled and diced
• 1 large or 2 small ripe avocados, peeled, pitted, and diced
• 2 Roma tomatoes, diced
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• ½ cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded & minced
• 1/2 cup clamato juice
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Combine the fresh shrimp and lime juice in a glass or stainless steel bowl. (Do not use plastic!) Make sure there is enough juice to cover all of the shrimp. If there isn’t enough juice, add more. Cover with saran wrap and place in the refrigerator for 1 ½ to 2 hours or until the shrimp looks opaque instead of translucent.
2. Remove the cured shrimp mixture from the refrigerator. Drain in a colander.
3. Combine the tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, jalapeño, and cilantro in a large bowl.
4. Mix in the shrimp
5. Add the avocado. Then, pour the clamato juice over and add salt and pepper to taste (typically about 1/4 teaspoon of each).
6. Serve immediately over tostadas or tortilla chips.

We hope you enjoy these recipes as much as we do! You can find the best quality seafood for dinner tonight at City Fish Market. For more delicious seafood recipes and seafood cooking tips, browse our blog!