Food Prep with No Heat Needed - Ceviche

Started by Captain Smollett, February 26, 2010, 11:35:53 PM

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Captain Smollett

The idea of a solar cooker is interesting, and it leads naturally to the next logical step.

What if you could "cook" with no fuel or heat source?

A dude here in the marina last year introduced me to this idea, and I've been meaning to explore it further.  The solar cooker thread reminded me.  :)

One variant from Peru (or Ecuador; I understand they argue over who gets to claim it) is called ceviche but there are others (with other names).  Back in 2007, the CBS Morning show had the head chef from NYC's Gammercy Tavern on showing some techniques.

In a nutshell, instead of denaturing the meat with heat, you do so chemically with food acids such as lemon or vinegar - a marinade!  

There are MANY dishes that can be made this way.  Here's one shrimp recipe. and the CBS Show page linked above has a couple, too (one for char and the other for calamari).

Seems to me a good tool for the arsenal of the small boat cruiser...prepare that fresh-caught fish with no fuel (to use up or heat up the boat).  The dude that told me about it is out cruising now, and he said he rarely conventionally cooks meat (seems to me it's mostly useful for fish/seafood, but who knows?).

Edit:  My post is clearly incomplete without a link to the Ceviche Recipe Page.
S/V Gaelic Sea
Alberg 30
North Carolina

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  -Mark Twain

Pablo

I love Ceviche, but you do have to be care to use the freshest seafood.  It works best on light fish, but I have done it with Salmon.  Every recipe I see for shell fish always has them par boiled first.  I don't know if it is just fear or if it is justified...

Grog for the links, I will be sure to give those a try.
Paul

Oldrig

Capt'n and Pablo:

Thanks for reminding me of ceviche.
When well prepared, it is delicious.
But I'd second Pablo's warning: My wife and I enjoyed our first taste of ceviche while visiting Puerto
Escondido on the Pacific coast of Oaxaca State in Mexico--back when it was a little fishing village, accessible only by DC-3.
Unfortunately, we paid the price for our meal later that night. Was the seafood not fresh, or was it just La Tourista? We'll never know.
--Joe
"What a greate matter it is to saile a shyppe or goe to sea"
--Capt. John Smith, 1627

geneWj

In our 2.3 years of cruising the Sea of Cortez it was a very popular method of cooking FRESH fish, notice the word fresh.  Le'mons as the Mexicans call them was the staple to marinate the fish, shrimp and scallops.
genewj
Keep Learning!!

Auspicious

I really enjoy ceviche. My understanding is that ceviche "cooks" food by breaking down long molecular protein chains (if I have that right) which is fine, even great, for preparing the food to eat. It doesn't have the same effect on viruses and bacteria that heat-based cooking has. I expect that is why there is so much emphasis on fresh food, especially fish, as the material.
S/V Auspicious
HR 40 - a little big for SailFar but my heart is on small boats
Chesapeake Bay

Beware cut and paste sailors.

Captain Smollett

Quote from: Auspicious on February 28, 2010, 06:28:00 PM
I really enjoy ceviche. My understanding is that ceviche "cooks" food by breaking down long molecular protein chains (if I have that right) which is fine, even great, for preparing the food to eat. It doesn't have the same effect on viruses and bacteria that heat-based cooking has. I expect that is why there is so much emphasis on fresh food, especially fish, as the material.

Yep; your understanding is exactly right  (Wearing my Chemistry Prof. hat for a moment...taking it back off now; whew, that's better).
S/V Gaelic Sea
Alberg 30
North Carolina

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  -Mark Twain

AdriftAtSea

I'd imagine that the thickness of the food also affects how well the denaturing process used in ceviche and similar food preparation methods works.   My  advice would be to use fairly thinly sliced fish or seafood if you're making ceviche.
s/v Pretty Gee
Telstar 28 Trimaran
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Captain Smollett

Quote from: AdriftAtSea on February 28, 2010, 08:39:03 PM
I'd imagine that the thickness of the food also affects how well the denaturing process used in ceviche and similar food preparation methods works.   My  advice would be to use fairly thinly sliced fish or seafood if you're making ceviche.

Hmmm.  I'm sure I don't know, but it looks like in at least the shrimp recipes, the shrimp is whole (but peeled) and can be pretty thick.

Seems to me like chemical 'cooking' would handle thicker pieces about like heat cooking...longer times for thicker, shorter times for thinner.
S/V Gaelic Sea
Alberg 30
North Carolina

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.  -Mark Twain

Pablo

Quote from: Captain Smollett on February 28, 2010, 10:38:35 PM

Seems to me like chemical 'cooking' would handle thicker pieces about like heat cooking...longer times for thicker, shorter times for thinner.

In my limited experience that is correct, within reason. I would cut the shrimp up if I wasn't going to parboil it.   Also I would caution against too thin as it really "overcooks" the food.   
Paul

Auspicious

S/V Auspicious
HR 40 - a little big for SailFar but my heart is on small boats
Chesapeake Bay

Beware cut and paste sailors.

Shipscarver

Ahhhh! Sometimes it just feels so right to be a vegetarian. ::)
"The great secret that all old people share
is that you really haven't changed . . .
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion." . . . Doris Lessing

Shipscarver - Cape Dory 27

CapnK

Read about this years and years ago, in some sailors book.. Might have even been 'Dove'. Very similar to Ceviche, but you are not relying on the juice acid so much for cooking, mostly just for flavoring. Good stuff, especially when your meal was swimming minutes before. :)

Poisson Cru

...here, too.
http://sailfar.net
Please Buy My Boats. ;)

carl762

Nice.  It's only 5:07 am, and I've already learned something new today.  GROG
Sundance 23 - inSanity