Fermented ceviche recipe
Everyone’s fermenting these days. Me? I’m primarily fermenting fruit, and I've found fermented fruit goes very well with raw seafood.
Here’s a recipe I served at a fine dining popup in San Francisco. A take on ceviche that trades lime for lacto-fermented and semi-dehydrated apricots, it was the unanimous favorite course!
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THE THEORY
Ceviche is all about acid. Mainly citric acid and malic acid, the acids found in lime. But for my weirdceviche fine dining pop-ups, I try to break this rule.
With weirdceviche, I experiment with replacing ceviche’s traditional source of acidity — lime — with ferments, preserves, and acidic herbs. These sources tend to favor lactic acid (the acid in sauerkraut and other lacto-fermens) and acetic acid (the acid in vinegar), and they still pair well with the classic acids when you’re thoughtful about it.
It took me a couple years to dial in the concept, testing both acidic broths (like a classic leche de tigre) and add-ins, looking for a balance that was reminiscent of but also distinct from a classic ceviche dish. Over time I found that bringing acidity from bite-sized components (usually fermented and dehydrated fruits) rather than the broth allows you both control and variety from bite to bite. I also found that adding bites with intense sweetness (e.g. dates) counteract the acidity to confuse the diner every few bites.
My scallop “aguachile” recipe (the recipe I’m sharing here) was the first recipe where I dialed it in. The recipe formula is loosely:
Raw seafood (fish, scallops) or chilled cooked seafood (shrimp) to serve as the base of the dish
Neutral-ish pH liquid (tomato water, fruit-infused water, chilled tea) to act as the leche de tigre. Seasoned to taste with salt and a bit of lime zest.
Acidic bites such as lacto-fermented and semi-dehydrated fruit, acidic herbs
Sweet bites such as dates, hoshigaki, dehydrated fruits
Complementary flavored oil to add body and round out the dish
It’s a formula that I’ve used for many other weirdceviche dishes, so I figured I’d share it here.
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THE GOODS
INGREDIENTS
This recipe serves around 4 people. It takes 8 days including the fermentation step.
Apricots (2) | You’ll be fermenting these, so feel free to use way more than just 2.
Large tomatoes (4) | Not something super flavorful like heirloom — it ends up being distracting in this dish.
Lime (1)
Hoshigaki (1) | You can sub out with store-bought medjool dates, but go for some that don’t taste too much of caramel.
Radishes (2 really small ones)
Scallops (6)
Neutral oil (200g) | I prefer sunflower oil for its health/taste/price performance, but canola oil works too.
Ginger or horseradish (200g)
TOOLS
Dehydrator for semi-dehydrating the lacto-fermented apricots. This intensifies the sweetness of the fermented fruit, making it have the best of both fresh and fermented flavors.
Vacuum sealer for lacto-fermenting the lacto-fermented apricots. Fermenting fruits with a vacuum sealer is the most consistent method.
Heavy-duty towels for straining the tomato water. When I worked at a Michelin star restaurant, we used this type of towel to fine-strain nearly everything.
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THE Recipe
Fermented and dehydrated apricots
Do this at least 8 days before serving the dish.
Using the guide for fermented and dehydrating strawberries here, do the same for apricots. But be sure to save the fermented apricot liquid from the apricots after you ferment them!
Fully submerge the dehydrated apricots in the fermented apricot liquid to semi-rehydrate the apricots after you dehydrate them. Alternatively, reseal with a chamber sealer. Once submerged in the fermented liquid and stored in an airtight container, you can store the fermented and dehydrated apricots practically indefinitely in the fridge.
Check out my primer on dehydrators if you want to dig deeper into this flavor hack.
Ginger or horseradish oil
Roughly chop 200g ginger or horseradish.
Add the chopped ginger or horseradish to a small pot with 200g neutral oil.
Cook on the stove at around 300F until the ginger or horseradish stops bubbling. Don’t let it brown!
Strain and store in the fridge.
Tomato water
Do this the day of serving the dish. Day before works fine in a pinch, but save steps 3 and 4 for the day of.
Blend the 4 tomatoes.
Strain the tomatoes over a strainer covered in wet paper towels. I use these heavy duty ones to ensure they don’t break. The resulting liquid should be clear (perhaps with a hint of orange) and not red. The layer of tomatoes on the bottom of the strainer/paper help to strain the tomatoes clearer, so the first few drops from your strainer (i.e. drops from before there was a layer of tomatoes on the bottom of the strainer) might not be clear. You can pour that less-than-clear liquid back on top of the strainer to get a clearer yield. Put your strainer setup in the fridge and wait for at least a couple hours.
Grate lime zest from 1 lime into the clear liquid. Let sit in the fridge for a couple hours before straining. Strain.
Season the tomato water with salt to taste.
Scallops
Do this the day of serving the dish.
Create a brine of water plus 10% its weight in salt. 500g water with 50g salt is probably enough to cover this quantity of scallops. Chill the brine in the fridge before the next step (alternatively, replace some % of the water with ice and then wait for it to melt).
Fully submerge the scallops in the brine for 10 minutes. Strain then store in the fridge until it’s time to eat.
Mise En Place
Do this a few minutes before serving.
Dice the hoshigaki (or dates) into roughly 1cm squares.
Dice the fermented and dehydrated apricot into roughly 1cm squares.
Slice the radish as thin as possible with a mandoline slicer.
Thinly slice each scallop into 5+ slices.
If the lemon verbena is more than 3 cm long, slice into smaller pieces.
Putting it all together
Cover the bottom of a chilled bowl with scallops, around 1.5 scallops per person.
Evenly distribute 9 pieces of apricot, 6 pieces of hoshigaki/date, and 10 radish pieces on top of the scallops.
Spoon tomato water over the scallops — enough to marinate but not quite fully submerge. In my bowls that is about 40mL.
Drizzle a spoonful of the ginger/horseradish oil on top.
Evenly distribute the lemon verbena.
That’s it! Let me know what you think.
