Peruvian ceviche: the original recipe with tiger’s milk (leche de tigre)

Wash the amberjack. Gut and fillet the fish, carefully removing the skin and bones.  

Dice all the fish and prawns.

Now proceed to prepare the tiger’s milk (latte di tigre). Squeeze the lemons and remove any pips. Add the garlic, grated ginger, a few pieces of the diced fish, two slices of aji limo and a drizzle of oil. Blend into a creamy mixture.

Marinate the fish with the resulting juice and leave it to rest for a few minutes in the fridge. 

In the meantime, peel the onion and slice it finely. Peel the cucumber and dice it.

Remove the fibres from the celery and slice it into small, half-moon slices.

Take the marinated fish out of the fridge and dress it with the vegetables. Add a trickle of oil and garnish with some of the coriander leaves. 

Tips

Dice the fish into pieces of the same size. In this way, when the fish is left to marinate in the lemon juice, the “cooking” process will be more even and the resulting consistency of the fish will be perfect. The marinating process should not last too long, 5-10 minutes are sufficient. If prolonged excessively, the lemon would cause the fish to cook completely when it should actually remain raw.  The ceviche must be served cold because it is a refreshing dish designed to enhance the flavour of the raw fish which, of course, needs to be extremely fresh. 

Variants

To prepare a delicious ceviche it is possible to use various types of white fish, such as sea bass. Other excellent varieties include amberjack, snapper, scallops and, in some cases, even salmon. Coriander, which is an ingredient you either love or hate, may be replaced with the easier solution of parsley and, if you are not particularly keen on hot spicy flavours, you may use a milder chilli than aji limo.  

Some interesting facts

When you make ceviche nothing goes to waste! The leftover marinade juice is known as leche de tigre and, according to the Peruvian tradition, it is a potent aphrodisiac. In actual fact, it is simply delicious and contains all the juices of its excellent ingredients.  For this reason, the addition of a glass of wine, a shot of vodka or, better still, a small glass of pisco, the traditional and widely famous distilled Peruvian liqueur, adds up to a cocktail South Americans cannot get enough of.   

If you have been to Perù and tasted ceviche, you will notice that your own does not have the same flavour. This is because it lacks in sazonador umami, a sort of salt with a strong hint of umami which makes this recipe even tastier. You will find this ingredient in well stocked ethnic food markets but don’t overdo it! A pinch is all you need. Too much would literally make your ceviche unpalatable.