Peruvian · appetizer

Ceviche Nikkei de Atún

Ceviche Nikkei de Atún reads salinity 5.8, umami 5.7 and citrus 5.5 on Palate's 0–10 flavor X-ray — a Peruvian appetizer, about 48 min. Measured from the recipe itself: ingredients and technique.

The flavor X-ray — six axes, 0–10

The measured notes (of 18)

Salinity 5.8 · Umami 5.7 · Citrus 5.5 · Sourness 4.9 · Marine & Briny 4.4 · Nutty 3.4 · Heat 3.2 · Richness 3.1 · Allium 3.1 · Herbaceous 2.9 · Funk & Ferment 2.8 · Warm Spice 2.0 · Sweetness 1.6 · Fruity 1.2 · Floral 1.0 · Earthy 0.9 · Bitterness 0.7

What's in it (11)

Time & effort: about 48 min (27 min active) · effort: involved

Nutrition (per 100 g, engine-estimated): 98.4 kcal, 12.1 g protein, 3.6 g fat, 5.2 g carbs

Dietary: Contains meat · Contains seafood — engine-derived; double-check anything allergy-critical.

How it's cooked (7 steps)

  1. The criollo ceviche of Lima is built on leche de tigre — lime, garlic, rocoto, fish trim, ice — and comes with sweet potato and choclo to soften the acid. The Nikkei version throws almost all of that out. Shoyu replaces the garlic, the cure is counted in seconds rather than minutes, and the fish is cut in sashimi blocks so it stays raw at the centre. If you make both, make the difference obvious.
  2. Chill the tuna hard, then cut it into clean 2 cm cubes with a single stroke of a sharp knife per cut; sawing tears the muscle and the cure will go mushy. Keep it on a cold plate over ice while you work.
  3. Squeeze the limes by hand and stop before you crush the pith — Peruvian cooks are emphatic about this, because pith oil turns the juice bitter within minutes. You want 150 ml of clean juice, used within the quarter hour.
  4. Slice the red onion paper-thin against the grain and drop it into ice water for 10 minutes to take off the raw heat, then drain it dry.
  5. Grate the ginger and squeeze the pulp in your fist over a bowl to get about a teaspoon of juice. Whisk it with the lime juice, shoyu, sesame oil and salt. Taste: it should be sharp first, salty second, and just sweet at the back from the ginger.
  6. Tip the tuna into the dressing with the ají limo and turn it over twice. Cure for 60 seconds only — count it — then add the onion and cilantro and turn once more. The surface should be pale and the centre still ruby.
  7. Spoon into cold bowls with some of the dressing, scatter the sesame and the nori threads over the top, and eat immediately. There is no sweet potato and no choclo here, and adding them would make it a different dish.

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Every number above is Palate's engine-measured estimate, computed from this recipe's ingredients and techniques — not human-tasted ratings or reviews.