Plenty of Fish in the Freezer-Making Halibut Ceviche

We have several pounds of fish in our freezer from the fishing trip my fiance went on when he was visiting Alaska. I'm determined to use it up before we end up with more-ack! To that end, last night we made a halibut ceviche. It's basically my own recipe made from cobbling together several recipes I found online.

For those of you not familiar, ceviche is a fish dish found in South American cuisine. I personally had it for the first time in Peru. Ceviche is not cooked-raw fish or seafood is marinated in some kind of citrus (lemon or lime) juice, usually along with other ingredients (such as onions, chilis. For more info see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceviche) Obviously, as with sushi or any other raw fish dish, you need to be careful that you use very fresh fish, and there is some risk of food poisoning from raw fish. Ingredients: 1lb of Halibut - cut into 1/2 inch cubes juice from 5 lemons juice from 5 limes 4 jalapeno peppers, diced and seeded 1 sweet onion, diced 1 bell pepper (we used orange), diced 3 medium tomatoes (we used some pretty purplish ones), diced fresh parsley and cilantro-diced salt and pepper-to taste, if desired

Cube halibut and dice jalapeno peppers and mix with lemon and lime juice in a non-metallic bowl (glass or plastic will work). Cover and refrigerate for 1 1/2 hours.

Dice onion and bell pepper and add to mixture. Stir well and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour.

Dice fresh tomatoes, parsley and cilantro, salt and pepper. Add to mixture and serve.

You can serve this with corn and potatoes (which is how I saw it done in Peru), or rice, avocado, tortilla or plantain chips, or whatever you want, really! We had ours with a whole grain rice 'medley' and sweet potato tortilla chips (both from Trader Joe's!) This recipe is really a lot of fun to make-and easy apart from all the waiting. I love how it got more colorful as we went along. I tried this once before-several months ago-with a mix of halibut and salmon, but never got around to writing down what I did. I really preferred the halibut over the salmon. You could easily make this with most other white flesh fish, I think. 

 Do you guys like ceviche? Has anyone tried making it? It's really easy, just a lot of time marinating. What would you add? How would you serve it? Please leave me a comment and let me know!

Semi-homemade cooking: Unfried Rice

I came up with this recipe while I was helping out my mom who had been ill with pneumonia. She’d just come home from the hospital, and was only just starting to regain her appetite so I wanted something fairly simple I didn’t want to head to the grocery store. All we really had in the house for quick cooking was leftover rice, frozen veggies, and eggs. And so, unfried rice was born! This was really a thrown together dish, so please excuse the lack of measurements and exact quantities-do what you want, modify, and use what you have on hand! Here’s how I did it:

Ingredients:

Pre-cooked or leftover rice (probably about 3 cups)
½ a bag of frozen broccoli (obviously, substitute whatever veggies you have on hand or prefer)
2 eggs
Soy sauce
Seasoned rice vinegar (we use a brand called Nakano)
Ground mustard
Dried (or fresh) parsley


Basically-I cooked the frozen broccoli by the stovetop method-which involved putting the broccoli in a pot with a small amount of boiling water. I partially drained the cooked broccoli leaving a little water, and added the pre-cooked rice. I scrambled and cooked the egg s, and chopped them up with the spatula before adding them to the pot as well. I turned on very low heat and added the soy sauce, vinegar, and spices. I mixed everything together and cooked until heated through. That’s it!


It came out pretty tasty. Not quite the same as fried rice of course. I think I’ll make this again at home with some changes. I might add a small dash of sesame oil and maybe red pepper flakes or sriracha to make it a bit more interesting. Let me know what you think! What would you add or leave out?