Foods that are Fun to Say AND Eat

Seviche ( s-vch). Say it again, seviche. Isn't it just so fun to say? Apparently I had a two-day food theme of foods that I think have fun names. First, it was couscous and then it was seviche. Once again, this is far different from life of five years ago if I think that foods have "fun" names. My thirties are awesome.

While on vacation in Belize, the husband and I were dying to have seviche. We ignored travel doctor's warnings about eating raw fish in the Central American paradise and went for it. We were glad that we did. It was delicious as the fish was so fresh and brought the restaurants by local fisherman literally fresh off the boat. Of course, would one really think that fish that wasn't fresh is delicious, would they?

As some readers may be aware, we are moving and emptying out our cabinets. I am only allowing myself to buy fresh ingredients aside from the occassional box of pasta. This makes meal planning a little challenging. I am not letting myself get new oils, vinegars, spices, etc...I have to use what I have.

Hmmm, do I smell a new Top Chef challenge? The chefs are put into kitchens of people with upcoming moves and told they can buy a few fresh ingredients and then only use the pantry items that are in the person's kitchen? The chefs would also be limited to use whatever kitchen appliances that aren't packed up, with the exception of their knives. Ok, I called and posted this challenge here first!

Anyhow, I was challenged with what could I make for dinner this week as my oils, vinegars, etc.. are running low. Coming accross this recipe in a past issue of Cooking Light (really, I should just rename this blog, keatinglovescookinglightmagazine.blogspot.com), I was inspired to try this.

We live near so many great fish stores, so I knew the fish would be very fresh. Because the original structure was wiped out by a fire last May, I felt compelled to buy our fish from James Hook & Company. They are operating out of a temporary structure on the same lot. I'd also get our fish from our fish guy (a friend of a friend who sells his fish to some of the great Boston restaurants and also sells to friends), but we have not recieved any e-mails recently with his offerings.

Seeing how neither one of us got sick after eating the seviche last night, I felt as though the recipe was ok to post today. I adapted the original recipe to change the kinds of fish that we used. We asked the guys at James Hook for a good fish for seviche and went with their recommendations.

Simple First Timers Seviche (adapted from Cooking Light August 2007)
Printable Recipe
1 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup fresh orange juice (two large oranges)
1 red onion
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (two limes)
1/2 cup lemon juice (husband made me use the bottled stuff that we have)
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 teaspoons hot sauce
1/2 pound striped bass, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 pound haddock, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 peeled and diced avocado

1. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and toss well. Refrigerate for 45-60 minutes before serving.
   
2. Serve with tortilla chips.

Yield: 12 servings. Serving size is about 1/2 cup.

I think that when I make this again, I will drain some of the juice before serving. Also, I would have loved to add more pepper to this, but the husband can't handle spicey foods. While I have been using more spicey foods, I opted to not use the jalapeno pepper in the bowl that we shared. I just could not use both hot sauce and jalapeno peppers, he would not have been able to handle it. However, I added jalapeno slices to my bites of seviche.