Peruvian Ceviche

Last time I ate ceviche was in a Peruvian restaurant in Panama – somewhat random eh? I have never made it at home, so I thought I'd have a go as part of my 'international week'. I used one of my own, home-grown habareno chillies, and boy did it pack a punch! Unless you like you food fiery, you may wish to use a less potent chilli, or leave it out entirely. 

 

Ceviche is a dish where fish or seafood is 'cooked' by marinating it in lime or lemon juice and eaten 'raw'. Make sure you only use the freshest of fish fillets for that reason. You can use other white fish if you can't find tilapia. 

 

Serves 2

Syn Free on Extra Easy

2 tilapia fillets, diced

½ small red onion, halved and slivered

¾ cup lime juice

1 habareno chilli, seeded and finely chopped (optional)

1 sweet potato

1 corn on the cob

salad to serve

In a large bowl, combine the fish, lime juice, chilli and onion. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, peel the sweet potato and cut into slices. Slice the corn and boil both for 5-7 minutes until just tender.

Serve the ceviche over the salad with the corn and potato on the side. 

 

Key Lime Pie – Version Two

This time I decided to just use fresh limes rather than the jelly crystals, and it was a much better end product. It went down very well at our Slimming World party this morning. 

 

Serves 8-10

½ syn for the whole cake

generous ½ cup buckwheat

2 tbsp sweetener

¼ tub quark

2 eggs

½ tsp baking powder

2 tbsp sweetener

2 x 500g tub fat free fromage frais

¾ tubs quark

1 cup sweetener (to taste)

1 tsp vanilla essence

zest and juice of 3-4 limes

2 sachets gelatine crystals

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 23cm spring form cake tin by spraying it with Fry Light. Heat a frying pan to medium-high heat and dry toast the buckwheat until they start to brown, 3-5 minutes. Switch off the pan, add 2 tbsp sweetener and ca 1 tbsp water to mix it all in. Stir until all the water has evaporated. Quickly line the bottom of the cake tin with the buckwheat and leave to cool.

Separate the eggs. Whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl whisk the egg yolks with a quarter of one of the tubs of quark, the baking powder and 2 tbsp sweetener. Carefully fold in to the egg whites. Pour mixture on top of the buckwheat in the tin. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tin. Don't worry if the cake looks very high at this stage, it will settle down when it has cooled.

Using an electric whisk, beat together the fromage frais, the rest of the quark, 1 cup of sweetener and the lime zest. Place the lime juice in a non- metallic container and heat in the microwave for 30 seconds. Dissolve the contents of the packets of jelly powder in the lime juice and beat well to ensure it is properly mixed. Allow to cool a little before gently mixing in to the fromage frais mixture. Keep tasting the mixture and adjust the sweetener/lime until the combination is just right. Spread the mixture over the cake and leave for at least two hours to set.

I like to take the pie out of the fridge for a couple of hours before eating, as it makes the topping nice and creamy and a softer consistency. 

 

Oriental-Style Coleslaw with Chinese-Style Pork

As plans changed today, I was left with no food for this evening, so Joe came to my rescue again – this time in the form of Chinese-style pork. What to serve with it? Hmmm, what's in the fridge....?

This is what I came up with:

Serves 3

Syn Free on Extra Easy

½ red cabbage

1 small onion

2 carrots

small knob ginger

½ pineapple

80g edamame beans

juice of 2 limes

2 tbsp sweetener

2 tbsp soy sauce

3 Joe's Chinese-style pork steaks 

 

Finely slice the cabbage and onion. Peel and cut the carrots and ginger into julienne strips. Peel the pineapple and cut into matchstick sized sticks. Mix the cabbage, carrots, onion, ginger and pineapple with the beans. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, sweetener and lime juice. Pour over the salad and mix well.

Meanwhile grill the pork steaks on medium high for 8-10 minutes until cooked through. Serve with the salad.