Ceviche - Who makes the best?

Summer always makes me want to eat more seafood. Maybe it’s the fact I was born in Southern Italy and fish was plentiful in the summer and somehow it brings memories of unspoiled (they were when I was a kid many decades ago) beaches dotted with colourful umbrellas and the sweet smell of sun tan lotion. In Italy we ate fish plain grilled with some olive oil a squirt of lemon a bit of salt and pepper and voila dinner. Here is Canada we are blessed to have all kinds of seafood available all year long. But the only problem is it’s not the same as that fresh catch you get in the Med or the Caribbean. So in order to make the most of whatever seafood I might have around I love to prepare Ceviche. I chop up shrimp, scallops, and salmon and bathethe mixture in lime and lemon and lots of garlic. Then I refrigerated for a few hours and before you know it I have delicious ceviche my way. I love to serve it in martini glasses with a little parsley (never cilantro I HATE cilantro)

In the last few years ceviche has made its way on the menus of many restaurants and like myself every Chef or Cook creates their own version of this Peruvian dish. If you travel through South and Central America you will find hundreds of different versions of ceviche with each country claiming to make the best. In Panama they use mostly White Sea bass (corvina) and prepare it with lemon juice, chopped onions, celery, habanero peppers and sea salt. In Ecuador its shrimp ceviche made with tomato paste, lime juice and salt. In Chile it’s often made with halibut or Patagonian toothfish which is marinated in lime and grapefruit juices garlic and red chile peppers and my much hated cilantro is added. In Cuba they use mahi-mahi, lime juice, salt, onion, green pepper, habanero peppers and a bit of all spice. The mother country for Ceviche is Peru and here is one of the best Peruvian recipes provided by Chef and food writer Stephanie Ortenzi:

Ceviche Peruano (Serves 6)
An appetizer or late-night snack eaten with Pisco, the Peruvian brandy
600 gr halibut
3 large Scallops
1 small red onion, thinly julienned
juice of 12 limes, or enough to cover the fish
1 aji amarillo pepper finely diced
salt to taste
2 cobs of corn, boiled and cut in thirds
2 large sweet potatoes, boiled and into thirds

Cut the halibut and scallops equally into one-inch pieces.
Season with salt, cover with lime juice, and set the red onions on top.
Cover and refrigerate for about 30 minutes or until the fish has firmed up and becomes opaque.
When ready, drain and serve in cold bowls with corn and sweet potato to garnish.

Try it and as the Peruvians would say ‘Bon Provecho!)

Bon Vivant Hits the Road!

Sort of...Our travel experts in the Vancouver area will be at the EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival this weekend to talk about our "Flavours of Tuscany" tour and other culinary trips that might tempt some tastebuds.

If you are in the Vancouver area and attending the show, please drop by booth #507 to say hello and participate in our contest for a Bertozzi imported italian food gift basket. All you have to do is have your picture taken in our "little Italy" scene featuring a red hot Vespa from Vespa Metro Vancouver and fill out a ballot. The best shots of the day will be posted on our facebook page if you want to have a peak at what we're up to.

Have a great weekend and we hope to see some of you at the show!

Casa de Los Sabores- Oaxacan for Food with Heart

There’s an unimposing door on Calle Reforma in downtown Oaxaca that announces I’ve reached “Casa de Los Sabores” (or House of Flavours). Passing through the metal door, I enter a world where culinary history, tradition and Oaxacan staples meld under the canopied courtyard of Chef Pilar Cabrera Arroyo’s much-lauded cooking school. Bougainvillea flowers shower the white cotton bands hanging over the brightly laid out dining room table as we gather around the spacious island to hear about what we’ll be making today. But first thing is first- it’s time to shop for our ingredients.

I’ve always said Mexican food is the original slow food. You can’t rush a good mole sauce any more than you can a braised roast. Chef Pili (as she’s often called by friends) walks our group to the neighbourhood market called La Merced where ingredients are explained and examined. Chickens the colour of sunflowers? That’s because they eat Marigolds as part of their diet. Every kind of chile- dried and fresh, herbs like the eponymous epazote which flavours sauces and soups (and is known to fight any parasite that might be lurking in your system- hey, this a multi-purpose herb!) are purchased and then, it’s back to the kitchen.

Our group starts by plucking organic rose petals from thorny stems for Pilar’s spectacular Rose Petal Sorbet. Delicately pink, flavoured with fresh and dry rose petals, a hint of rosewater and almonds, it’s refreshing and elegant at the same time. Then it’s on to searing and peeling peppers for the soup while the sorbet sets, making a fresh salsa with avocado and peppers, and the filling for the stuffed peppers. Everyone is put to work while a happy hum of activity surrounds us all.

The group’s efforts yield richly delicious rewards- a lunch fit for a Rey with the gurgling courtyard water fountain serenading us while Catrina papier machier dolls (symbolic of Day of the Dead celebrations near our Hallowe’en) watch on with toothy grins. A shot of mezcal (Oaxaca’s answer to tequila) starts us off and we enjoy an al fresco lunch in the cradle of Mexican culinary creativity. The Australians, Dutch, Canadians and Americans in our group all agree, this is one of the most memorable meals we’ve ever had.