FISH TALES: CEVICHE AND ITS DESI CONNECTION
This Peruvian specialty dish, made with raw, diced fish, has not only been gaining popularity in India in recent times, but has its roots in our country as well. Read on!
There’s this uber trendy and healthy dish in the dining capitals of the world that is gaining popularity in chic restaurants of Delhi, Mumbai and Goa. Another trivia about this dish is that it has surprisingly old ties with India too! Any guesses which one is it?
We are talking about ceviche, the Peruvian speciality of fresh raw fish that is diced, cured in lime or lemon juice, and served up with onions and chilli. The oil-free ceviche is one of those fashionable dishes to have dominated global palates for a few years now, in New York, London, Melbourne, Singapore. Of late, the trend has caught on in Indian metros as well, as Indian chefs too experiment with the bounty of the Indian Ocean and pair it with subcontinental ingredients, such as kokum, coconut and spices.
Seafood bhel, a take on ceviche, has become fairly popular on Indian bar menus after it was first introduced by Amaranta at The Oberoi Gurgaon a decade ago, and was also popularised by London restaurants such as Kricket, where diced seafood is served with nimbu and sev.
But Indians have been scared of “raw fish” of a classic Peruvian ceviche, till quite recently. It is only now, with healthy eating and international trends on Instagram catching up, that this dish is getting popular.
One of the most interesting Indian takes on the Peruvian ceviche that I sampled a few years ago was prepared by the late chef Floyd Cardoz of The Bombay Canteen. The hugely talented chef (who we lost to Covid-19 in 2020) served his own version once at his restaurant, using local fish and sol kadi — ceviche inspired by the Konkan coast. It was a match made in food heaven!
Of late, more interesting experiments are happening. Tuna ceviche has been a star creation by chef Manish Mehrotra at Indian Accent, where he indianised the dish by marinating raw fish in mosambi juice and spiking it with tamarind, making it a little bitter and quintessentially desi.
In Goa, chef
Abhijeet Bagwe of
W Goa, mans an onrequest ceviche bar, where he makes fresh ceviche at a live counter, not just for special events such as wedding lunches, but even at your private hotel villa. Chef Bagwe, who trained under a Peruvian chef, offers a range of ceviche — both classic and variations such as the tiradito, which is part of Peruvian food’s Japanese legacy.
Tiger’s milk or leche de tigre, as it is called in South America, refers to the spicy citrus-based marinade for diced fish. Tiradito, meanwhile, is fish sliced like in sashimi and not diced. The curing or cooking of the classic ceviche in tiger’s milk is a technique that connects this Peruvian dish to medieval India.
The technique of marinating meat/seafood in lime juice and with spices/chillies was carried to South America by the Spanish in the 15th or 16th centuries. But the Spanish themselves got it via the Muslim ‘moors’, or Arab people, who in turn seem to have acquired this from their old and deep cultural and trade connections with India, where meats were typically marinated in tenderising and sour ingredients— including kachri (a local berry of Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi) and fruit juices, not to mention green papaya and yoghurt.
So the next time you spoon up some trendy, lip-smacking ceviche, remember how this dish that’s on your platter has travelled all over the world.
The author is a food critic and historian