Whenever I go to a restaurant, the first thing I look at is the raw dishes. Kingfish ceviche is popping up everywhere and I’m pretty happy about it. This dish is inspired by a favourite local restaurant. I order it every time, and sit there in the crowded noisy space, eyes closed trying to reverse engineer the flavours I’m eating. This is my attempt at a recreation, with a little twist and it’s pretty darn tasty. I love creating simple, delicious dishes that are your go-to for fuss free, gourmet cooking, and this dish is just that.

To start, let’s nerd out on Ceviche. Read on for the why, what, how, as well as step by step guide and a video on how to prepare this dish.

What’s to love about this recipe:

What’s great about this kingfish ceviche recipe is that it’s so quick and easy, yet effortlessly showy. You don’t need to be a chef to make a dish like this. If you’re entertaining you can whip this up in a few minutes and pull it out of the fridge when guests arrive. Happy days.

The sauce is so fragrant and fresh with creamy coconut milk and lime Tropical Asian inspired flavours. The kingfish has the most soft and buttery texture, it’s just perfect for ceviche.

The toasted chilli oil is smokey, umami and delicious, paired with the fresh lime coconut dressing is actually unreal. If you’re in a real pinch, you can skip the homemade chilli oil. I highly recommend making it, but I have also tried with straight store bought chilli oil, and it tastes great too.

What is ceviche?

It's a delicious Latin American dish using sashimi grade raw fish or shellfish marinated in citrus juices. The acid lightly ‘cooks’ the fish lightly changing the colour and texture. It’s served cold and is either diced or sliced, served on its own or with other accompaniments like this recipe.

How is ceviche different from crudo

Ceviche is lightly ‘cooked’ by the acid of the citrus with marinating time from a few minutes up to an hour, whereas crudo (meaning raw in Italian) refers to fish or shellfish served raw (often with citrus accompaniments like lemon juice.

What is sashimi grade fish

‘Sashimi grade’ is actually an unregulated term, but it’s a helpful guide. The fish is frozen and defrosted over a certain period of time, at certain temperatures that can kill parasites. Basically only buy fish you’re going to eat raw that has been prepared by a fishmonger who specialises in sashimi, as they follow strict handling, storage, and hygiene practices. You will be buying ‘sashimi grade’ and it is safe to eat raw.

Best fish for ceviche

Sourcing fish for ceviche varies from region to region. As a general guide, kingfish (also known as yellowtail amberjack), salmon, tuna, snapper, halibut, sea bass, hamachi, mahi-mahi, scallops and even prawns/shrimp are popular choices for a ceviche recipe.

What does kingfish taste like and what is it similar to?

Kingfish has a delicate, ocean like flavour, with a buttery texture. It’s similar to mahi-mahi or hamachi for eating as ceviche and sashimi.

How to prepare kingfish ceviche

From your fishmonger, you want to get a top loin piece of kingfish, with the skin removed.

Use a sharp knife. I like to give my knife a proper sharpen right before cutting.

Make sure your hands are washed and clean, and you have a clean chopping board. Place your kingfish fillet, skin side facing up on the chopping board ready to cut.

Cut even slices 2mm thick slices across the fillet to creat bit size slivers of goodness. Once all the pieces are cut, and remaining ingredients and serve straight away or refrigerate until right before serving.

Best ingredients for ceviche

Citrus is the key ingredient for turning the seafood into ceviche, but there’s so much more you can add to make the flavours sing. For this coconut milk ceviche, I’m using lime juice, kaffir lime, fish sauce and chilli -very Tropical Asian inspired with the tropical coconut milk. But the more traditional Peruvian ceviche flavour parings are avocado, lime, red onion, jalapeno, olive oil and coriander, similar to my Kingfish Mezcal Ceviche Tostadas recipe.

Flavours that are light and bright work best with ceviche, and there’s so many ways to have fun with it.

How to serve ceviche

This recipe is just meant to dig in with some chopsticks or a fork, but more Latin American flavoured ceviche is great with tostadas or corn chips to add a delicious crunch texture.

Can ceviche be made ahead of time?

It’s best prepared and served straight away Personally. I like to buy my fish the day of using it, so it’s the freshest of fresh, but you can buy it the day before. For this recipe, you can make the chilli oil in advance and prep the ingredients, but I would leave the marinating stage for right before serving, as the longer you leave it ‘cooking’ the firmer the texture becomes.

Storage

I recommend eating when it’s prepared. You can put it in an airtight container, and keep it for up to 24 hours, but it’s best straight after you make it.

Tips for making this recipe:

• For preparing the kingfish, read the info above. Use a sharp knife, clean hands and clean work surface when preparing raw fish.
• Keep it cool, don’t leave the fish out on the bench while you’re prepping other parts of the dish. Keep it in the fridge till you’re ready to prep it, then back in the fidge after cutting.
• Choose juicy, ripe limes that have a bit of give when you squeeze them. The flavour of the coconut dressing is meant to be quite ‘lime forward’, so try to get the most out of the limes as possible. You want 5 tbsp of lime juice, so opt for a third lime if they’re not very juicy.
• Don’t be scared of shrimp paste. The Chilli oil has a rich umami note to it, given by the shrimp paste. The smell can be a little intense, but trust me, it cooks down and has a nice little funk that doesn’t overpower.
• Go coconuts. Ok I actually load the coconut up a bit more than shown in the images -I wanted it to look clean and all the ingredients clear for the image, but it eats so well with the coconut crunch so add as much as your heart desires.

Other raw dishes to try

If you’ve got a craving for more raw dishes, try my scallop crudo, kingfish mezcal ceviche and snapper crudo.