Here is another ceviche dish. This one, however, has a little twist – it has tequila and pickled chipotles! Another light, bright, flavorful meal prepared in 30 minutes. You can’t go wrong with this.
A couple of days ago, Baby Lady had one of her co-workers, Adriana, from Mexico Distrito Federal in town on business. She reads the blog and had commented to Baby Lady about several of the dishes. Naturally, while she was in town, we invited her over for dinner. Anyone who actually reads the blog definitely has to come over for dinner. Given she is from Distrito Federal, chiles and Mexican food were off the table. Instead, we fixed A Most Unusual Bruschetta: Goat Cheese Mousse on Toast with Tomato Salad and Crispy Pastrami, Mediterranean Inspired Swordfish on Linguini with homemade pasta, and finished the evening with the most recent post, Red Wine Poached Pear. It was a delightful meal and great time was had by all. She was so sweet. She even brought me some tasty goodies from Mexico.
The bag of green in the middle is mole verde. I can’t wait to use it. 😀
Now you may be wondering why I’m talking about a prior meal that has nothing to do with this ceviche or Adriana’s gift. I have my reason and it’s all connected. You see, the swordfish I bought for the main course was unbelievably fresh and absolutely delicious. It had arrived that day and was the best looking of all the seafood. It is also why I decided on the Mediterranean Inspired Swordfish on Linguini for dinner that night. Given that Baby Lady and I love fresh swordfish, I bought a little extra just to make this ceviche the following day. See how all of this is connected now?
You see, I have been working on this ceviche recipe in my mind for a while. I like the dense, meatiness of swordfish. I also like its delicate yet full flavor. Like tuna, swordfish is a good choice for sushi. Hence, it is a perfect choice for ceviche. The meatiness of the fresh swordfish would stand up well to my other main ingredient, mango. Then, as I was thinking about mango, I remembered one of my favorite drinks, Mango Margaritas. If you haven’t tried one, you are really missing out. Now mangos and limes both play well with tequila, so I decided a little tequila added to the ceviche would be nice. Then, we decided that instead of the serrano or jalapeño chile typically used in ceviche we would add a little sweet, tart smokey heat by using pickled chipotles. Now don’t get scared off by the use of the pickled chipotle. It adds a nice touch of heat and wonderful flavor but does not make the ceviche too hot. Neither does it overpower the flavor of the fish with the smoke. This is a remarkably flavorful ceviche that is very simple to make. Give it a try. Here is what we did.
Ingredients
- 12 oz fresh swordfish, skinned and 1/2 inch dice
- 2 pickled chipotle, minced (recipe found here)
- 4 limes, juiced
- 1/2 red onion, 1/4 inch dice
- 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/4 inch dice
- 1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped
- 1 large ripe mango peeled, stoned and 1/4 inch dice
- 2 Tbsp Tequila
- 2 Tbsp good olive oil
Instruction
Mix all the ingredients together in a glass or nonreactive bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
Because of the high quality of the swordfish, refrigerate for 20 – 30 minutes. You don’t want the swordfish to be cooked too long in the citric acid. If, however, you want your fish “cooked” a little longer you can keep the swordfish in the citric acid in the fridge for up to 1 hour.
Find an appropriate serving vessel. We like these 2 part chilled martini glasses. They are perfect for ceviche and caviar as they keep the food very cold. They look cool, too. Spoon the ceviche into the serving vessel.
Serve & enjoy! We certainly did. 😀
REMCooks 
looks beautiful! I love mango margaritas! and did I see a habanero popcorn bag among the goodies? I am intrigued 🙂
Hi, Andreea. Thanks for the very nice compliment. 🙂 The habanero popcorn is for the Baby Lady as is the jar of rasta de chile habanero. They are a tad too hot for my palate. 😮 Also, Baby Lady loves to put ground chile on her popcorn.
WOW! looks delicious
Hi, Courtney. Thanks for dropping by and your nice comment. Hope to see you around.
This really does sound good, Richard. Ceviche reminds me of late Winter vacations South of the Border. Had I seen this one on a menu, I would surely have ordered it. These martini glasses are the perfect serving vessels, too. The dish, presentation and post were all very well done.
Hi, John. Thanks for the nice compliment. We love ceviche and probably need to eat more of it since I’m still struggling with my holiday weight gain. 😮 We found these martin glasses at an estate sale and they looked perfect for cold appetizer plates like this ceviche and a lobster cocktail we do. I probably should post it and had forgotten about it until just now. Thanks, again. 🙂
Oh, those pickled chipotles have reared their spicy heads once again! I will be making them. And I love this recipe. I had an octopus ceviche on vacation three times it was so good. But yours is much prettier!
Hi, Mimi. Thanks for the very nice compliment. Octopus ceviche is one of my favorite ceviches. When we go to the Caribbean, we eat it almost every time we find it. We have been working on one for a while but are still trying to perfect it. Because of the nature of octopus, you have to cook it first. Slow cooking makes it tender but you lose the integrity of the little tentacles and their suckers. Flash cooking is a little more difficult because, if done improperly, it’s like eating rubber. 😮 One of these days we’ll get it off the drawing board.
I can’t wait!
Another lovely job Richard. Great to do something really nice for a guest of your better half.
Best,
Conor
Thanks, Conor. I’m really trying to find her a hen egg holder. Know where I can find one for her? 😉
The presentation looks great but I bet it even taste better. I would love to make this, I guess I can substitute it with Ahi Tuna because that’s the only sushi grade I can buy in our market.
Hi, Joy, Thanks for the very nice compliment. Yes, you can use tuna as a substitute but I would drop the marinating time to no more than 15 minutes. In fact, when I initially was playing with this recipe I was going to make this with tuna but decided to use swordfish instead because we eat so much ahi poke. Let me know how it works with the tuna.
Looks amazing and I’ve no doubt (that Baby Lady’s) friend Adriana had a brilliant meal too. Wow regarding your gift, (likewise I can’t wait to see how the molé verde is used.)
As for the mango & chillies (having enjoyed them before) and I’ve got to take full advantage of these last warm days (and seasons fruits) before the dread of wintertime hits and soon!
Hi, Alice. Thanks for your nice compliment. From what I have read, you have had a blistering hot summer even by Texas standards. Ceviche is a perfect meal on hot days as it will definitely cool you down and put a smile on your face. How’s school coming along?
Tanks Richard. Indeed it’s been the hottest summer of record these last 200+ years, which is truly saying something, for sunny coastal, beachy Sydney. Alas daylight savings comes soon and with it autumn and (fantastic) warm weather braises.
As for the ceviche I’m keen to hunt down some mango and tuna soon. School well and currently involved in poultry classes, end of module practice test and theory per usual. This year has zipped on by, but no doubt you and family are keen for those summers days and summer rays soon!
Love this! I’m jealous of the fresh swordfish, because here it is only available frozen. In Italy I love to order swordfish carpaccio.
And as for coming over to dinner, we just may have to make a little detour next time we visit Florida for a bit of sun in our winter… 🙂
By the way, you don’t say anything about the red/bloodish part that is present in swordfish steaks. I assume you removed that? I don’t like the taste of that at all.
You are more than welcome to drop by for dinner if you ever get this way. We are empty nesters and have 2 guest bedrooms that are almost always empty so you have a place to stay in DFW should the occasion arise. As for the blood meat, yes, I always remove it. It has a very strong, unpleasant flavor. Blech! I probably should have said something and will fix it.
You can bet we will take you up on that offer! We already have plenty of travel plans for this year, but a trip to the sun in February/March 2014 sounds like a great idea now that the winter here is about to return for the fifth time this season 😦
Now, you must be warned that our anniversary is February 14 and we typically go to Hawaii or the Caribbean for a week to 10 days. So, we probably will be gone in the 2/10 – 2/24 time frame. The first part of February is the coldest portion of the year and we actually have freezing weather then. The latter part of February, it begins to warm up and the average temp is 65 F, which is pretty pleasant. Weather in Texas is peculiar. Monday we had 82 F and sunny skies. Yesterday, it was 35 F in the morning and 52 F in the afternoon. Today, it was 31 F in the morning and we are supposed to reach 62 F this afternoon. By the weekend we are supposed to be back in the 70s F but with scattered thunderstorms, so go figure.
Thanks for the warning 🙂 I will definitely co-ordinate dates with you before I plan anything.
Oh yum, I love ceviche. The first time I ate it was in Barcelona some years ago, so whenever I see ceviche recipes I automatically go on a ‘dream holiday’ back to those days of tapas and sangria! Mango and chilli go so well together… love the combination of flavours in your dish. I definitely want to give it a try myself!
Thanks, Laura, for the nice compliment. Glad to bring back some pleasant and fond memories. It’s funny how food does that.