Tequila Ceviche (Mexico)

Anyone who has been following this blog and knows what ceviche is, will not be at all surprised to hear of my fear of this recipe.  For those of you who don't know what it is, ceviche is a mexican delicacy of chopped, raw white fish. White fish isn't a problem for me at all, but raw fish (of any kind) definitely is.  I do not eat raw fish - a fact of which anyone who's been to a sushi restaurant with me is well aware. 

I did see a small hope in this recipe though - tequila.  I do like tequila - as anyone who's ever been to a country-western bar with me will know.  

The recipe suggests using very fresh fish (for obvious reasons). So Soph and I saved this recipe to make while we were on holiday in France (again, for obvious reasons). Allegra recommends using bass, or a cod-like fish that's white - but not a flat fish.  So off we went to the hypermarche.  Although I am fluent in French, I did not have the sense to look up what bass is in French before heading off to the shops, and the woman on the fish counter looked at us as though we were crazy for suggesting that she might know the English  word bass.  So away we went with Dos de Cabillaud, which is cod, and called it a win. 

The next step is to thinly slice the meat - a task to which my dad was more suited so I called him into action. He decided the best bet was to slice with the grain but quickly realised that was  not true and before long had thinly sliced all of the cod. 

Now I have been a little misleading up until now in that the fish isn't technically raw at the time you eat it - it's cooked to a degree by being soaked in a mixture of tequila, salt, and lime, in the fridge for about 20 minutes.  To me, however, this still counts as raw. Since my parents don't own shot glasses (go figure), I guessed on the measurement but feel confident that I poured between 35ml and 45ml of tequilla into the dish - so let's call it a large shot.  

After it's sat in the fridge for 20 minutes, you then top it with another of my favourites - you guessed it - chopped chillis.  So for anyone keeping a tally of the main ingredients - that's 2-1 against me. Obviously, I wasn't about to chop up chillis so Soph stepped in and expertly chopped and scattered the final touches on the tequila ceviche. 

It was then time to serve up this delicacy to Soph and my dad who love fish, and my brother who is quite the adventurous eater.  My mum and sister-in-law opted out, so there were only 4 tasters on this one.  

As a recipe, it's incredibly simple and quick to make. Taste-wise, however, I am definitely not a fan.  As expected, it was too chewy for me and very hard to bring myself to swallow.  The other tasters, however, were very impressed by it. They all said that the chilli and lime worked very well with the white fish. The tequilla was very interesting because, as you can see in the pictures, it clearly did go some way towards cooking the fish, but you couldn't taste it at all in the flavour of the dish. In the space of 20 minutes in the fridge, the fish went from being transleucent to being cloudy - settling the fears of some of the tasters that they would be eating raw fish.  

There was also a very intersting texture contrast between the fish and the chilli.  Since the chillies weren't particularly hot, they weren't so much of a problem but all of the flavours and textures together didn't work for me.  

While it's not something that I would eat again, everyone else said they would enjoy it and likely order it in a restaurant if it were on the menu.