Ahi Ceviche Recipe
Cook Time
What is Ceviche?
Ceviche is a Peruvian method of “cooking” fish by marinating it in citrus. The citric acid creates the same chemical reaction as cooking but without heat. The tricky part of making ceviche is properly timing the marinating to not overcook or undercook your fish. Slice that fish a little smaller one time or a little bigger the next, and you change the time that it needs to marinate. Tricky, for sure.
To get around the timing issue, I use ahi tuna as it's edible raw. In fact, ahi is better served raw. Hence, this recipe is essentially an ahi tartar using a lime dressing to re-create the flavor of ceviche. Adding a dash of Asian fusion with the use of ginger, soy sauce, and sesame oil, you end up with truly San Franciscan cuisine (that is where I'm from after all).
Best of all, it's simple and relatively fast to make. Most of your prep time is spent cutting ahi and juicing and zesting limes.
Ingredients
- 1 lb ahi tuna, sashimi grade
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- 1 avocado, cut into 1/2
- 2 limes
- olive oil, 1/2 the amount that the limes make in juice
- 1 1/2 fresh ginger, peeled and grated
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 tbsp soy sauce
- flatbread or corn chips
Instructions
- Cut the ahi into 1/2" square pieces and place into a non-reactive bowl. (Yes, this is the most time consuming part of the whole recipe.)
- Add the cilantro and avocado and mix well.
- In a separate bowl (or better, a martini shaker) whisk together the juice of the limes, the zest of the limes, the olive oil, ginger, sesame oil, and soy sauce.
- When you are ready to serve, add the dressing to the ahi-cilantro-avocado mixture and serve immediately.
Kitchen Essentials Used In This Recipe
How to Not Screw It Up
Here are a few tips and tricks that I’ve discovered over the years of making this ceviche that will help you:
- Use a very sharp knife to cut the Ahi. If you have anything less than a sharp knife, you will mangle the ahi and damage its clean texture.
- If you have a Martini shaker in the house, it’s a great way to mix the ingredients for the dressing. Throw them all in the martini shaker and shake. It's a lot more fun than whisking.
- I recommend using a citrus squeezer to get the juice from the limes. You want as much of the citrus as you can get and squeezing by hand leaves a lot of juice in the lime.
- Use toasted sesame oil instead of regular, plain sesame oil. Toasted sesame oil has a more intense sesame flavor. Regular sesame oil will get overpowered by the lime and ginger and you will have wasted a teaspoon of oily calories without adding flavor.
To Make a Vegetarian Version
Substituting tofu for the ahi, you can make a vegan version of this same ceviche. The prep time is a little longer as the tofu will need to be pressed of excess water and requires an hour to marinate in the ceviche dressing to absorb the flavors. The complete instructions are found here:
