Mistakes To Avoid When Making Ceviche

Ceviche is a tasty dish that many fish lovers can devour virtually any time of day. For those that don’t want to head to their local seafood restaurant to enjoy it, they can try making it right at home. Fortunately, ceviche recipes are fairly straightforward, and even a novice chef can make this dish. If you are ready to try making ceviche at home, you will only need a few ingredients to add to the fish like lemon juice, cilantro and onions. Because this dish is eaten raw, many individuals do find that they make some mistakes the first few times they make ceviche. Don’t worry because we are here to help! If you want to take on the task of preparing ceviche at home, make sure you avoid the five common mistakes.

Not Preparing The Fish Properly

It should come as no surprise that the fish is the star of this dish. Because of this, you need to make sure that you prepare it properly. The first step is choosing the right fish. Cold-water fish is best, and it needs to be as fresh as possible. Salmon, cod and tilapia are all good choices. Before you start preparing any of your ingredients, you do need to start off with a freshly cleaned knife and cutting board. If you will be putting any ingredients into your ceviche dish that require you to chop or cut them, make sure you do so before you cut the fish. When you are handling the fish, you should wear gloves. Despite washing your hands, they could still transfer bacteria from them to the fish. Since you won’t be cooking the fish, you won’t have any way of killing the bacteria if this does happen. You should also keep your fish in the refrigerator up until the time that you are ready to start cutting it. Don’t leave it on the counter as this could cause bacteria to grow.

Being Too Rough With Your Lemons

The juice from a lemon is the key ingredient when making ceviche. However, you shouldn’t just squeeze a lemon as hard as you can onto your cut up fish. By doing so, you could alter the flavor of the entire dish. By squeezing the lemon too hard, you will cause the juice from the pith of the lemon to be released as well. The pith is the white lining at the center of the lemon. Unfortunately, this part of the fruit is rather bitter. If you use a fresh lemon, you won’t have to squeeze it that hard in order to get the right amount of juice out of it. You can tell a lemon is fresh if it is bright in color. It should feel firm, and the skin should be smooth. When buying lemons, you should inspect them to make sure that they aren’t discolored as this is a sign that they are starting to go bad. If you plan on making a large batch of ceviche, you may need to use more than one lemon in order to get all of the juice that you need.

Marinating It For Too Long

You do need to let your fish sit in a marinade that’s made with the lemon juice and any herbs and spices that you choose. Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for those that are new to making ceviche to let the fish sit in it for too long. Marinating fish for ceviche is a lot different than it is marinating meat. The fish shouldn’t sit in the marinade for longer than 20 minutes. If it does, then it will end up having a tougher texture, and the color of it will change as well. This has to do with the acid from the lemon juice as it changes the properties in the fish’s proteins. Many individuals only let their fish sit in the marinade for no more than 15 minutes as they don’t want to risk leaving it in for too long.

Slicing With The Fish’s Grain Instead Of Against It

There really is an art to slicing fish the right way when making ceviche. Since the fish is raw, you need to cut it against the grain to keep it soft. Some people prefer to cut it into cubes while others prefer to cut it into thin slices. There really is no right or wrong size. However, smaller chunks do tend to pack a lot of flavor and are less fragile. You also need to make sure that the knife you choose is sharp. If you use a dull knife, you may find it difficult to cut the fish and end up tearing it apart.

Sticking To A Marinade Recipe And Not Tasting It

If you have never made ceviche before, you may be tempted to just choose a recipe that you think will be tasty. While this may work out, you do need to taste the marinade before you add the fish to it. The key to making a delicious recipe is balancing all of the flavors. If you don’t like the way that the marinade tastes, you probably won’t like the dish once you’ve thrown it all together. Keep in mind that you really want the marinade to just complement the fish and not overwhelm it. A simple marinade that many people find tasty no matter what fish they use consists of lemon juice, red onions and cilantro. If you would like your ceviche to have a sweeter taste, consider adding a bit of ketchup to it as well.

Ceviche is the perfect dish to make for anyone that loves fish. It is fairly easy to make, but a lot of people do end up making a few mistakes the first time they make it. It may take a little bit of experimenting with ingredients, but you can easily master the art of making the perfect ceviche dish right from your very own kitchen.

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