Tuna Ceviche with Smashed Cucumbers
4 servings
80 minutes
Tuna ceviche with smashed cucumbers is a fresh and vibrant Peruvian recipe where traditional fish marinating techniques blend with unexpected textures and flavors. Tender tuna infused with lime aroma combines with crunchy smashed cucumbers, spicy notes of chili and garlic, along with refreshing citrus accents of orange and rhubarb. Classic elements of Peruvian cuisine—freshness, acidity, and spice balance—are fully expressed in this dish. The tarragon oil-based dressing adds herby depth while watercress makes the presentation particularly elegant. Ceviche is not just an appetizer but a true gastronomic experience that reveals the richness of ocean flavors and the art of culinary contrasts.
1
First, you need to prepare the dressing — it should steep. For this, blend vegetable oil with tarragon leaves and let it sit for an hour.
- Vegetable oil: 15 ml
- Tarragon: 5 g
2
Slightly flatten the cucumbers by pressing them with the wide side of a knife blade, then slice. Chop the garlic and chili pepper and mix them with sesame oil and soy sauce - this is the marinade for the cucumbers, which should sit for about half an hour.
- Cucumbers: 300 g
- Garlic: 1 head
- Red chili pepper: 15 g
- Sesame oil: 15 ml
- Unfermented (hydrolysed) soy sauce: 30 ml
3
Mix tomatoes with grape seed oil, add chervil and blend in a blender. Cut tuna into cubes and radish into translucent circles. Shred rhubarb and celery. Drizzle fish with lime juice, season with salt and pepper, mix with tomato dressing, tarragon oil, and lime zest. After 10 minutes, combine marinated tuna with smashed cucumbers and orange pieces.
- Tomatoes: 70 g
- Grapeseed oil: 30 ml
- Chervil: 5 g
- Bluefin tuna: 200 g
- Radish: 50 g
- Rhubarb: 1 stem
- Celery: 1 stem
- Lime: 10 g
- Rock salt (halite): 15 g
- Ground black pepper: 4 g
- Oranges: 1 piece
- Vegetable oil: 15 ml
- Tarragon: 5 g
- Lime: 10 g
4
Garnish with watercress or flowers before serving.
- Watercress: 5 g
