Peruvian Ceviche with Leche de Tiger
By: Sheri Wetherell
Published: Tuesday, June 2, 2015 - 1:23pm

Ingredients




*See note above for ingredients sources.
For the Cancha:
1 cup cancha, toasted Peruvian corn*
1 tsp canola oil
Salt to taste
For the Garnish:
1 pound sweet potatoes, whole, skin on
1 cup frozen choclo (Peruvian corn kernels)*
1/4 cup cilantro leaves
For the Ceviche:
2 pounds sea bass or other white fish, trimmed and deboned (reserve scraps for leche de tigre)
Sea salt to taste
2 cups red onion, halved and thinly sliced, rinsed in cold water
2 habanero chiles, seeds and veins removed, julienned (use rubber gloves!)
For the Leche de Tigre:
2 inch piece of ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely diced
4 celery stalks, peeled, finely diced
4 cups freshly squeezed lime juice
1/4 cup trimmings from sea bass
1 cup red onion, halved, heart removed, thinly sliced, rinsed in cold water
Dried bonito fish flakes to taste
2 habanero chiles, seeds and veins removed, roughly chopped (use rubber gloves!)
1/2 bunch cilantro stems, roughly chopped
1 tsp sea salt
Sugar to taste

Preparation

1 For the cancha: 2 Preheat oven to 300°F. Evenly spread the cant on a baking sheet and bak for approximately 30 minutes. Place the cancha in a sauté pan and swirl over low heat until the kernels begin to pop. Cove with a lid and continue swirling. Remove from heat, add the canola oil, and continue to shake to evenly coat the cancha with oil. Season with salt to taste. Cool to room temperature. 3 For the garnish: 4 Place the sweet potatoes (skin on) in a saucepan; cover with water and season with salt. Bring the water to a boil and cook until soft. Place the sweet potatoes in an ice bath and remove the skin immediately; strain and refrigerate until ready to slice and serve. For the choclo, bring a saucepan with water to a boil; blanch the choclo for 30 seconds. Strain and cool and leave at room temperature to ensure the kernels do not discolor. Pick 1/4 cup cilantro leaves (no stems) and reserve. 5 For the ceviche: 6 Remove any discolored flesh and bones from the fish and reserve the trim for the leche de tigre. Cutting with the grain of the fish, dice the fish into small cubes and place in a bowl over an ice bath to ensure the fish is kept ice cold. Season generously with salt, tossing the fish for several minutes as this releases the proteins from the fish. 7 Add the rinsed red onions and the habanero chiles to the fish and continue tossing. Set the ceviche in an ice bath to maintain freshness. 8 In a separate bowl, squeeze the limes for the ceviche, taking care not to over squeeze the limes (do only once). Season the lime juice with sugar and salt to taste. 9 Combine all the leche de tigre ingredients in a blender and pulse several times. Pour through a fine mesh sieve and press the juice out of the sieve mixture. Chill over ice until ready to serve. 10 Arrange the ceviche, sweet potato, choclo, and cancha on a serving platter. Once ready to serve, pour the leche de tigre through a strainer over the ceviche. Garnish with sprigs of fresh cilantro and serve immediately.

About

Leche de Tigre (or Tiger's Milk) is a Peruvian citrus-based marinade used for curing fish and other seafoods. It often also contains chile pepper, sugar and salt, onion, and fish juice. This recipe is from a Latin cooking boot camp taken at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in San Antonio, Texas.
*Note: look for asterisked ingredients in your local Latin market or on Amazon.com.