Tuna Ceviche

Re-committing to the website gives me a reason to cook good food even when Carl is away. Rather than resorting to cereal-for-dinner or leftovers from Christmas, I decided to whip up some ceviche.

Actually, ever since the carbfest that is Ukrainian Christmas, I've been jonesing for citrus and raw fish. So I picked up a lovely piece of tuna and some fresh OJ at at the Reading Terminal Market and got to work. No recipe, but I sliced the tuna into manageable portions, chopped up some garlic, ginger, scallion, and jalapeno pepper, and poured it all over with lime juice and some of the orange juice. After letting it rest in the fridge for an hour or so, I drained off most of the liquid and added chunks of mango, and sprinkled the ceviche with salt.

I'd like to report that the cevice was great, but it was only good. It was just a notch too spicy (I added too much jalapeno), and could have used some more sweetness besides the mango to counteract all that acidity. Honey would have worked well. Plus, I've just finished reading the Soul of a Chef, in which I learned the secret to Thomas Keller's culinary success (cleanliness/organization to the point of perfection ... essentially OCD), and the vision of Keller looking over my shoulder and tsk-tsking at my uneven chop job and messy lime-squeezing may have impacted my opinion slightly. Reading this book has temporarily brainwashed me into thinking that truly great cooking can only come out of a hospital-clean kitchen run with military precision ... and as I am by my very nature incapable of living that way, I have resigned myself to the fact that my cooking will only ever be mediocre. Hopefully I'll get over this in a few weeks.