Let's Eat Aguachile
The raw fish dish you can accompLISH
This week’s recipe is from my cousin Ewan Goulcher, who has been a chef at The Ninth and The Laughing Heart, and is a man of great talents and even greater enthusiasm. He’s bringing us Aguachile, which is perfect for the transition into sunnier weather. When I tasted it, I couldn’t believe I’d made it myself. I hope you have that feeling too, pals. Further down, I’m sharing the best three things I’ve eaten so far in April, because it is proving to be a good month for that.
I’ve said in the past how alive eating fish makes me feel. And there is no more ALIVE a fish dish than an aguachile. In Mexico, where this dish is from, aguachile is traditionally made with prawns. We don’t have access to juicy prawns in the UK, so Ewan’s recipe uses sea bass.
I hope you’ll give it a go and that you’ll discover how easy a dish it really is. You don’t need any fancy knife skills or anything, like you might for some other raw fish dishes. You do need a good bullet blender for the sauce, but the rest is a chopping and assembly job. Nothing like garnishing a beautiful bowl of raw fish with jewels of pomegranate and avocado then dousing it in a vibrant green sauce to make you feel a sense of achievement. I’ll tell you that now.
If you can, it’s important to source your fish from a proper fishmonger for this dish. Not because I’m a snob, but because vac-pack filleted fish will have sat in its plastic packaging too long so I wouldn’t suggest eating it raw in this preparation. Ask your fishmonger to fillet, skin and debone a bass for you.
Ewan says:
“I like this recipe because of its freshness and green notes. The sauce brings out the best in the fish, and it’s the perfect thing to bring to a dinner party because it offers high flavour impact, but without a lot of effort. It’s great to eat at a barbecue before lots of grilled food.”
Serves 4 as a starter, or 2 as a light lunch
Aguachile
For the sauce
1 small handful coriander (stalks and leaves)
½ fresh jalapeño (or more to taste if you like it spicy)
15g baby spinach (a small handful)
¼ cucumber
2 cubes of ice
¼ Granny Smith apple (you don’t need to peel it)
¼ stick celery
¼ green tomato
1 tsp agave syrup (or other syrup)
1 tbsp pickled jalapeno juice
For the assembly
1 lime
2 x Sea Bass fillets (approx 150g each), skin removed and diced into small chunks
⅓ avocado, diced
Coriander leaves, picked
1 small handful pomegranate seeds
½ jalapeño, thinly sliced
⅛ red onion, thinly sliced
¼ stick celery, peeled and thinly sliced (optional)
¼ diced green tomato
Plenty of ice cubes
For the aguachile base, blend everything except the pickle juice together in a blender until the sauce is bright green and fully mixed. Pass it through a sieve, and discard the mush that remains - it’s all about the juice.
Season the diced seabass with salt and lime juice and leave it to marinate for 2 minutes over a handful of ice cubes.
Over another bowl full of ice if possible, season the aguachile sauce with flaky sea salt, the jalapeño pickle juice and lime juice to taste. It should be sweet, sour, spicy and fresh! Keep going until you feel happy with the flavour.
Now it’s time to serve! Arrange the fish in the bottom of a bowl, and top with the chilli, onion, avocado, pomegranate, tomato and herb garnishes on top. Pour the green sauce over everything. If you have guests you can do this at the table for dramatic effect, why not? Slurp and enjoy with tostadas (crispy fried tortillas), if you like.
Top tips:
If you can’t find jalapeños, use any green chillies you can find.
If you can’t find a green tomato, use a black tomato or a firmer red tomato.
To remove only a few seeds from a pomegranate, slice a segment out of it like it’s an orange, and they’ll be much easier to ease out than if you slice the whole thing in two.
Purchase the fish on the day you plan to eat, if possible.
Things I have eaten so far this month
The gundu dosas at Cynthia Shanmugalingam’s new Borough restaurant Rambutan. I frequently harp on about Sri Lankan food being god’s finest, so I’m embarrassed to say I’d not heard of gundu dosas until I went to Rambutan. They are invigorating. Little dumpling balls of fermented rice batter, shaped and fried like Takoyaki, then served with coriander chutney. What more do you want? £4.30 a portion.
The reblochon on toast at Oxeye. In the very dystopian and architecturally lifeless zone that is ‘Nine Elms’ is Oxeye, a restaurant with 6 tables and almost as many chefs. It sits among the building works and the billionaires, but the food is really clever and they serve a lunch menu ‘Obento Tray’ for £35 that’s very fancy. It includes such items as a langoustine claw with XO sauce and a crispy fried enoki mushroom that appears, intriguingly, to have been squashed in a book. A good special occasion lunch to treat yourself to, regardless. I ate this cheese on toast (above) as a starter, which was a highlight. I’m into cheese on toast in any form, and I’m into fucking with French food, so spiking reblochon with pickled chilli and a pungent green oil was very much a winner. £4 a portion.
The Malaysian instant curries I bought in Chinatown. These have proven to be some of the best buys of the year. Having a few things in the cupboard like these just makes me feel safe. I got them from Loon Fung in Chinatown and ate the one on the left with ikan bilis (fried anchovies) which you can also get from there, and red skin peanuts roasted in the air fryer. They were about £2 a pack and it was the best Friday dinner.
See you soon!