We’ve been wanting to have the pickled veg we did with escovitch of fish a while back again, but I was struggling with what to do it with. Then is struck me: if we’re going to pickle the veg, why not pickle the fish too!?

Ceviche is a Peruvian way to pickle fish to cook it, without needing to heat it. The Graduian has a ‘make the perfect’ recipe on it that I’ll be following.

So I picked up a nice fresh Cornish sea bream from Borough Market and we filleted it ourselves, thanks to the Jamie Oliver Recipease course we took last year. This go pickled according to the Guardiun recipe, and the veg pickled as we did previously.

For the sourdough pitas I’m doing the normal refresh, then making a half amount of production sourdough:

• 250g flour
  • 175g white bread flour
  • 50g wholemeal flour
  • 25g rye flour
• 150g starter
• 125g water
• 5g salt

I’m also reducing the proofing time, so I’m doing:

• refresh (3 hours)
• make half batch of dough
  • Adding some Nigella seeds for some extra flavour and looks
• rest for 45mins
• stretch and fold
• another 45mins
• roll out
• another 45mins while oven heats hot (230C fan)
• cook for ~10 minutes

So.. fish!

Then we fillet. Filleting isn’t that hard… trying to get the skin off: different matter Bloody nightmare! Thankfully it’s a big fish, and the cats are happy for the scraps :)

And… yeah: ‘cook’ by leaving in a bowl of citrus juice for 10 minutes…

So in less time than it took to chop the veg, we can serve it :)

Pita bread: great. But it’s just pita bread… (hehe it’s nice to be so used to making bread that making pita bread is just by-and-by :)

Pickled veg: OMG MY MOUTH IS BURNING!!! Lovely taste… but after the 3rd mouthful it was a little burny, and by the 5th mouthful we needed milk and yogurt. Next time we leave out the seeds from the chillies!

Fish: also OMG, but this time for how amazing it is. Granted we’re fans of cooking meat or fish rare: that French style of cooking where a steak should be passed once over a candle before serving. But this is amazing! 10 minutes in citrus juice and you have amazingly fresh and plump and juicy fish. You might think it would be like tinned fish, but of course that’s been heat cooked, and this hasn’t. A totally different, fresher, cold fish sensation.

Conclusion: fish should never be cooked with heat. Just leave in a bowl in acid and eat 10 minutes later for the best fish taste ever!