Peruvian Fish Ceviche: Ceviche Peruano

"Peruvian Fish Ceviche"* is the national dish of Peru; but as such, there is no one recipe; thus, there are variations in the type of fish and chili pepper used, although there can be other variations. Also, the "side dish" of corn (maize) is most typically white corn, but often of the large kernel type, something that is not easily found outside Peru. Some people remove these large kernels from the cobs and then fry or toast them for this dish. The lime juice marinade "cooks" the raw fish in just a few minutes; so, you want to keep the fish pieces relatively small for the lime to penetrate the flesh of the fish. The chili pepper adds a bit of zest to the dish, without being mouth scorching.  

 

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

1 to 1 1/4 pounds halibut or sea bass, cut into bite size pieces 

1 red onion (baseball size), sliced into rings then cut into thirds or quarters

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 habanero chili pepper, seeded and finely chopped

juice from 8 to 10 limes (more if needed to completely cover the fish)

1 to 2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons fresh cilantro (known to some as coriander), chopped

2 ears of white (or yellow or bicolor) corn on the cob (boiled or grilled)

2 sweet potatoes, sliced (1/3 inch thick)

butter lettuce (Bibb lettuce is a type of butter lettuce)

Rinse the fish under cold running water, then cut it into bite size pieces and put the pieces to soak for ten minutes in a bowl of cold water. In another bowl of cold water with a pinch of salt, put the onion slices to soak. Drain both the fish and the onions well. Put the fish and onions into a bowl, then add the minced garlic, finely chopped chili pepper, salt and lime juice (you need to have enough lime juice to completely cover the fish pieces). Mix well (I do it by hand), cover the bowl and let the fish marinate for 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Cook the corn on the cob in some boiling water, likewise with the sweet potato slices (you can also grill the corn and sweet potato slices, if you like grilling). Cut the corn cobs into pieces of about 2 to 3 inches each. To serve: Place some butter lettuce on part of each plate and top the lettuce with some of the ceviche. Add a couple of slices of sweet potato and a piece a corn on the cob to each plate.

* "Ceviche" is also spelled "seviche" and "cebiche," and in the Spanish of Spain, the latter is considered proper. By the way, while there are theories as to the origins of the word, regardless of how you spell it, the word's history is very difficult, and at this time, I prefer to say its origin is "unknown."

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Halibut-This word for a particular type of flatfish is a compound of "holy" ^ and "butt" (flatfish), with the "holy" part added as the fish was often eaten on holy days. English has several words of the spelling "butt,"^^ although as it is used in the fish name, this version is related to the same form that gave English "buttock," as its general meaning is "the end piece (of something), often the thick end piece," and it is related to the word "beat," a word from the Germanic roots of English. This form "butt" goes back to Indo European "bheud/bhaud," which meant "to beat, to strike." This "supposedly" gave Old Germanic "butt," meaning "flatfish," although I'm more than a little skeptical about there ever having been such an Old Germanic word with the flatfish meaning; rather, I believe such a word was derived from the Old Germanic form that gave us "buttock;" that is, "but(t)a(n)," meaning, "that which is cut off," or, "the end piece, the short piece." It is interesting that "apparently" Anglo-Saxon (Old English) did not have a form of the word (this is one of the reasons I don't believe there ever was an Old Germanic form that referred to the flatfish), although it's always possible there was an unrecorded form of the word, and if true, it certainly wasn't prominent, which seems odd for these seafaring Germanic tribes from what is now the coastal areas of northern Germany, the northern Netherlands and southern Denmark, where fish, including various flatfish, were plentiful. After all, fairly large numbers of people from these tribes picked up and sailed to Briton. Old English seems to have used "flóc" to mean certain types of flatfish. "Butt," in reference to flatfish, appears in English around 1300, seemingly a borrowing from its close cousin Low German "butte." "Halibut" is from the late 1300s or early 1400s (it seems to have initially been "holibut," in English), when eating fish replaced the consumption of typical animal meat on certain Christian holy days. This seems to have been borrowed from the then Low German form "hellebütt."^^^ Relatives in the modern Germanic languages: German has "Heilbutt," initially as "heiligebutt," borrowed from the Low German form "hilligbutt," but then contracted to the modern form with influence from Low German "hellebütt" and Dutch "heilbot" (which is still the modern form). The North Germanic branch of the Germanic languages do not have forms of "halibut" nor of "butt," another reason why I don't believe there ever was an Old Germanic form (Note: Swedish once had "but/butta," but this was a borrowing from Low German). Unfortunately, the Brothers Grimm shed no light on these difficult words, as their entry is very sparse.        

^ For the history of "holy," this is the link to the article: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2011/08/german-question-part-one-hundred-twenty_47.html

 

^^ Several of the forms of "butt" are likely related, as most forms are from Germanic.  

^^^ It is important to remember, there is no standard Low German language, but rather there are dialects classified as being Low German. Hundreds of years ago, especially, most languages were developing standard forms, but dialects with different spellings and pronunciations were more the rule, rather than the exception; thus, lots of spelling variations.