EARTH DAY 2020 TILAPIA CEVICHE

It’s Earth Day’s fish because it’s Every Day’s fish.
Snobs sneer at it, accuse it of being boring, flavourless—qualities they know something about. (But these are the same culinary carpenters who’ll angrily blame the mallet for their throbbing thumb.)

I love Tilapia for its Swami Sivananda-like flexibility, its Leonardo DiCaprio-like sustainability, and its Bill and Melinda Gates-like fight against contagious diseases. (The Nile Tilapia has been effective in combatting malaria because of its love of mosquito larvae—how do you say “yummy in my tummy” in Tilapian?) And the sheer range of cooking techniques you can apply to it is nothing to shrug at.

I learned this simple recipe in Chile from an environmentalist friend, Jesus, who had a Tilapia pond in his yard, but preferred frozen over fresh for his ceviche. Frozen Tilapia is ubiquitous in every grocery store or box store here.

(Here’s the first of two Tilapia recipes.)

EARTH DAY RECIPE 1: TILAPIA MANGO CEVICHE

Tilapia Mango Ceviche

1/2 lb tilapia frozen, thinly sliced (the thicker the cut, the longer it takes to “cook” in the citrus juices)
1 mango, diced very small
1 Tb cilantro (or parsley), chopped

Marinade
1/2 Tb Kosher salt
1/2 cup lime juice, fresh squeezed
1 Tb orange juice, fresh squeezed
1/2 ts lime zest
1/2 red onion, sliced into half-moons
1/4 ts sugar
1 Scotch bonnet chili pepper (or jalapeño if you prefer it mild), seeded and chopped

Method

  1. Salt the fish, all sides
  2. In a Ziplock®? bag, add fish with lime + orange juice, red onion, chili pepper, lime zest and sugar. Make sure juices cover all the fish.
  3. Chill bag in fridge for 4 hours.
  4. Remove contents of bag into a glass or ceramic bowl (do not use anything metal, as the acid corrodes), add the mango and cilantro. Mix all together.
  5. Arrange on a plate (or just dump the contents into a bowl.)

Sanitize your hands, turn off your lights, take off your clothes, say grace to Mother Earth, and eat with tortilla chips or scoop into Tostitos®?

#covid19 #quarantinerecipes #earthday2020 #tilapia #ceviche #chile #sushimakingforthesoul

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