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20th December 2016
12:10am GMT
Ceviche should be Ireland's national dish.
As an island nation, we have some of the best food sources available. Travelling to Lima in Peru, I had some great variations of this amazing dish, including the Tigers Milk or Leche de Tigre, a known hangover cure that comes from the liquor. This is the best bit and makes you feel alive.
There are no real rules as to what fish you should use, but a firm fleshy fish is best. The secret is find a great fishmonger. I use Fitzsimon's Fish Shop in Crumlin, who always have a great selection and top advice.
Lay out all your ingredients. I like using a square pyrex dish, as I can put it in the fridge easily and get an even distribution of fish and juices. There's no cooking at all, so only prep and wait time required.
Debone and skin the fish. The fishmonger can probably do this, but it's the only hard part of the dish. A good knife's essential, otherwise you'll butcher it.
Be patient and plan on getting 80% of the flesh.
Use your cook's knife and chop the fish into small bite-size pieces. Place the fish in the pyrex.
Slice the scallops thinly and add to the rest of the fish mountain you have created.
Start squeezing the lemon and limes into the fish medley. No pips, so use whatever technique you like to maximise juice yield. You need lots of juice here to cover the fish and start the beautiful heat-free cooking experience.
Use your best Goodfellas chopping skills and slice the shallots thinly. Use red onion as a substitute.
Prepare and chop up your herbs. Traditional recipes mention coriander. The Irish twist is adding in dill and parsley. I don't think you can go too wrong here with loads of fresh herbs.
Throw all those herbs, chillis and shallots into the fish and citrus juice mix. That fish is already good to eat! The chilli adds a dimension I think is essential to the process, it particularly turns that the leche de tigre into wake up juice.
Add in some Irish Atlantic salt, if you have it. Irish this bad boy up.
Give it a good mix to make sure all the fish is covered in juice, herbs, chillis and shallots. Place it in the fridge. I think two hours is plenty, puritans may say 25 minutes and some say overnight. I don't think you can overcook with the juice mix, but there's a point where it's perfect. It all depends on how small your pieces of fish are and how much juice is in the mix.
Serve on its own as a starter. You could also use it in tacos, if you fancied.
When people say clean eating, this is what they're talking about. It's super clean and makes you feel full, without being bloated. Make it a little dirty by having a nice crisp white wine with it.
Make sure you shoot the juice once you eat all the fish. The wake up juice will give you a sense of clarity and help you realise that fish really needs to be our nations dish of choice.
