Lima · Peru’s national dish, protected since 2004

Ceviche

Name: Ceviche
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Lima
Ingredients: 500 g very fresh white fish such as sea bass or corvina; Juice of 8 limes; 1 red onion, thinly sliced; 1 fresh chilli, finely chopped; A handful of coriander, salt; Sweet potato, cooked and sliced; sweetcorn

Raw fish cured in minutes by lime juice, chilli, onion and salt, served with sweet potato and corn. Lima’s gift to the world’s hottest kitchens.

Rich1

Umami6

Fresh10

Spice6

Sweet3

The wine

A Sauvignon Blanc, an Albariño or, properly, a pisco sour; acidity meets acidity.

Ceviche in Lima is eaten at lunch, within minutes of being made: cubes of the freshest fish, sea bass or sole, tossed with lime juice, salt, red onion, aji limo chilli and coriander, the citrus “cooking” the surface of the fish while the inside stays raw. The milky juice left in the bowl, the leche de tigre, is drunk as a hangover cure and served as a shot.

The Nikkei kitchens of Japanese-Peruvian chefs took ceviche global: La Gaia in Ibiza builds a starred menu around it, Coya serves it in Monaco with pisco sours, Nikkei Nine in Hamburg and 893 Ryōtei in Berlin have it on every table, and Amazónico in Dubai serves it under palms in a financial district. It is the dish of the decade for warm-weather dining.

At home ceviche is about the fish and the timing: buy sushi-grade fish the same day, cut it into even cubes, marinate for no more than ten minutes and serve immediately with sweet potato, corn and a very cold beer or a pisco sour.

The home recipe · Serves 4

Ingredients

500 g very fresh white fish such as sea bass or corvina
Juice of 8 limes
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 fresh chilli, finely chopped
A handful of coriander, salt
Sweet potato, cooked and sliced; sweetcorn

Method

Cut the fish into 2 cm cubes and chill in a bowl over ice.
Season with salt, add the chilli and half the onion, then pour over the lime juice.
Marinate for five to ten minutes, stirring once, until the outside of the cubes turns opaque.
Add the coriander and the rest of the onion and serve at once with sweet potato and corn.
Pour the leftover leche de tigre into a small glass and drink it.