If you think raw fish eats end at sushi, Atul Kochhar and his Peruvian pal will serve you their ceviche
Guest chef Edgar Hurtado u00c2u0080u00c2u0088with Atul Kochhar and head chef Jerry Thomas at Lima. Pics/Sayyed Sameer Abedi
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"If you have this, you'll feel like a tigress," laughs chef Atul Kochhar, egging us to try a spoonful of leche de tigre (Peruvian: tiger's milk), called so due to an old belief in Peru about drinking it and feeling like a predator. Our taste buds tingle with zesty lime juice, caressed by a hint of ginger, garlic and onion that's part of the citrus concoction, also known as a hangover cure.
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Here, the milky consistency is derived from salmon fat. The concoction is prepared by Peruvian chef Edgar Hurtado, whose Garden restaurant and Kochhar's Rang Mahal share an address — Dubai's JW Marriott Marquis. Hurtado has been roped in as guest chef to curate a ceviche (se-vee-chey) special menu that goes live today at BKC restaurant Lima.
Ceviche Classico served on a traditional Peruvian dining mat
A seafood appetiser that originated in the coastal regions of Latin America, a ceviche is typically made using raw fish cured in citrus juices and spiced with aji or chilli peppers. "It is supposed to be served raw and fresh. We have created many variations of it, but to make a nice ceviche, you need a good leche de tigre. We hand-pound the ingredients together, including fish, to retain the flavours and get all the juices out. Then, we strain the mixture to make the marinade, which needs to be freshly prepared for every service," informs Hurtado.
Sea and eat
Featuring 11 varieties of ceviches u00c2u0080u00c2u0088('550 onwards), the menu maps the influences of different cultures on the Peruvian cuisine through the appetiser. For instance, Chifero Ceviche, featuring soy and sesame leche de tigre, showcases the Chinese influence while a vegetarian Mushroom Ceviche, with four types of the fungi and a ponzu reduction, is an ode to the Nikkei cuisine, a Japanese-Peruvian mash-up due to a large population of the Japs settled in the South American country.
Watermelon Ceviche
Kochhar, who first tried a ceviche at an eponymous restaurant in London five years ago, says, "Ceviche is similar to the Malaysian Kinilaw (raw fish cubes cured with vinegar-based dressing), except that they don't use tiger's milk but calamansi lime-based marinade. It's also similar to Japanese sashimi. Curing with citrus is a method of cooking because acidity provides heat and breaks the fish fibre."
Ceviche chaat, anyone?
Hurtado begins with Ceviche Classico, where he adds a generous amount of leche de tigre to diced sea bass ("bhetki is perfect for the dish," says Kochhar) seasoned with salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Shifting the mix in a serving plate, he tops it with onion, sweet potato confit (marinated in orange jus) and finishes it with the Peruvian indigenous fried chulpe corn. A burst of tangy-sweet flavours, cut with the crunchy chakhna-like corn, greet us as we dig into the dish.
Mushroom Ceviche
Then, Lima head chef Jerry Thomas takes over the open kitchen counter to showcase Desi Ceviche, sticking to the base ingredients of fish and marinade but tweaking it with tomato-based makhni sauce, Madras curry powder mix, kachumber, moong dal, sev and three masala puris. Impressed with the innovation, Hurtado mimics Thomas' gesture of trying it using a masala puri surface as a spoon. "It's technically a fish chaat," smiles Kochhar, as he happily digs into the dish that presents a perfect balance of tangy-spicy flavours and is light on the stomach. "That's the beauty. Each portion includes 100 gms of fish but you will never feel full even if you finish an entire bowl," informs Thomas.
Veggie ceviches too
"The best part about ceviche is that you can be as creative as you want. I offer four vegetarian ceviches at my restaurant and guests love them," says Hurtado. At Lima, vegetarians can try sesame-infused Mushroom Ceviche, Baby Corn Ceviche or even, Watermelon Ceviche that includes a balsamic reduction, fresh basil and goat cheese.
Desi Ceviche
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"For vegetarian ceviches, we make leche de tigre without fish, and use green chillies," says Thomas, as he dishes out the sweet-and-spicy fruit appetiser that we will gladly do an encore of, paired with a new collection of Peruvian Pisco Sour cocktails that is also being introduced at the restaurant.
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