My first ever attempt at ceviche was to make my blender salsa, add chopped raw white fish, and let it all sit in the fridge until the fish starts to “cook” in the acid. The only changes I made to the salsa are (1) that I chopped the ingredients finely instead of blending them, and (2) that I used more lime juice. Serve with good (maybe homemade) tortilla chips and chopped avocado.
Maybe, in the end, it was too acid? Next time I would stick with one lime, and maybe add some grated lime zest.
This is so easy and so satisfying! Put into a blender (don't chop at all!) 2 small tomatoes (or a container of grape tomatoes), 1 peeled onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 entire bunch of cilantro, 1/2 of a seeded jalapeño (or actually, imho, hot pickled jalapeños are even better than fresh!), the juice of 1 lime, 1 pinch cumin or cumin seeds, and 1 tsp (or more) of salt. Blend briefly, or just pulse it, or alternate pulsing and shaking of the blender pitcher. You don't want to pulverize it all completely (although that's good too!).
Enjoy with chips. Or quesadillas. Or fish. Or freezer burritos. This salsa gets better with time; make it hours in advance if you can. Increase the jalapeño (or include more seeds) if you want it hotter. If you don't have jalapeños, use dashes of hot sauce instead. Add cucumber or mango. Leave out the cilantro if you have haters in your group, and serve with chopped cilantro on the side. Advanced technique: Burn the ingredients in a very hot pan before starting to add some char. Another advanced technique: Blend 3/4 of the ingredients, chop 1/4, and mix it up at the end.
This is a quarantine favorite in my house. It can be made vegetarian or with meat, and it can be made hot or sweet.
Par-boil a half-pound of dried beans of any kind for about an hour in a 250 F (120 C) oven (or you can use a can of beans instead). When they are nearly finished, burn a large onion or two medium onions, chopped to bean size, and a large sweet potato, or a couple small ones, chopped to bean size, in olive oil in a pot. If you are going to use spicy sausage, like chorizo, burn it in the pot after the onions. You want to leave some dark burned bits on the bottom of the pot at this stage!
Add a chopped sweet pepper, some chipotle peppers (dried or from a can) if you want it hot, about 1 tbsp of chili powder and about 1/2 tbsp of cumin and about 1 tbsp of salt. Add water to cover, get it to a boil, and then put it in the oven at 250 F (120 C) for an hour. At the end, beat it up a bit with a fork to get the sweet potato to break up and become the body of the stew.
Possible modifications include: Try other kinds of meat, or even try a new plant-based meat alternative. Increase or reduce hot peppers, or use fresh jalapenos. Add tomato paste perhaps? Or maybe tabasco or vinegar for some acid. It's extremely forgiving, and the quantities of everything are up to you.
Serve with sour cream or yoghurt and chopped cilantro. Serves eight-ish.
