My Favorite Things
Tuna Mango Ceviche & Tortillas
This dish is very trendy, healthy and easy to make. Important to note, you must have a ruby red good quality Tuna. Fresh. No ifs ands or buts!
You have to love the taste of fresh lime juice and cilantro! My favorite flavors. You can also swap out the tuna and use another fish, like scallops, or shrimp, or sea bass, just dice the fish in small pieces.
Ingredients
1/2 pound fresh tuna, finely diced
1/2 cup (4 oz) fresh lime juice (use fresh!)
vegetable oil for frying or Pam for baking
8-12 corn tortillas cut into 4 triangles
Mango Salsa
1 small fresh red chili (if you cannot find this, use red chili's canned in adobo sauce in the ethnic isle in your market), deseeded and finely chopped. Leave the seeds for more fire!
1 small red onion finely chopped
1 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 bunch fresh chopped cilantro
1 large ripe mango peeled, stoned and finely diced
the juice of 2 limes
1 Tbsp Tequila
Directions
1. Place tuna in the lime juice to marinate for 30-60 minutes. Drain, and mix thoroughly with all the salsa ingredients.
2. Heat vegetable oil in a large fry pan. Keep a cookie rack on the side covered with paper towels for the cooked tortillas to drain. The oil needs to be HOT, so hot that when you drop a tortilla triangle in it, it crisps and bubbles up. If it is not hot, your chips will be greasy and absorb the oil. They cook quickly, so be ready with a wire scoop or mesh spoon to remove them and place on the paper towels to drain. Alternatively, if you prefer not to fry them, you can lightly spray them with "Pam" nonstick cooking spray and bake in the oven at 400 F for about 8 minutes. The textures are very different, but do what you prefer.
You can serve these a few ways. Scoop them out onto a platter like I have in the first photo, or place the salsa in a bowl and place chips around it for others to scoop on their own.
HINT: I like Heat... lots of it. So one little chili in adobe was not enough for me. Knowing my audience may not like the heat, I spooned about 2 tsp of the adobo sauce into the salsa for extra zing, but could have used another chili! So do not be afraid to experiment! And I will say this was great the next day for lunch!
What Are Your Favorite Things?
Notes: You do not have to use corn tortilla chips like I made here, you can pick up a bag of the "Scoops" or any corn chip, or even a "Stacy's" type chip for this dish.
IMPORTANT: Do not put the tuna in the lime juice to "cook" for more than 1 hour, it will get rubbery. So you need to do this just before you get ready to leave. If you dice the tuna small, it will cook in 30 minutes, you will not need the full 60.
Is it easier to chop up all the ingredients and place in small bowls in the fridge and combine shortly before getting ready to leave for a party or before serving. This is not really one of those recipes that needs to marinate for hours. And each of the flavors are strong on their own to meld quite well in a short time. So you can "mis en place" all your ingredients so they are ready when you are.