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This is a sweet, sour kind of salad. Quite different from vinaigrette and cream based salads which can become cloyingly heavy tasting on hot days. In addition to mangos, there are thinly sliced cucumbers, halved baby tomatoes, quickly pickled sweet onions and ceviche, seafood that is 'cooked' in citrus juice . I like this recipe because you do not need to make a salad dressing. One less cooking step, one bowl less to wash and a recipe that is friendly on your and my waist lines!
This recipe calls for sashimi grade seafood, as in seafood that is good enough to eat raw. If you do not have access to that, you could substitute with avocados and toasted walnuts. You would no longer have a ceviche but it would still be good! Take a sneak peek at the last photo on the bottom of this post.
There was sashimi grade salmon and scallops at the supermarket so that is what I used. It would work just as well with sashimi grade tuna and white fish. Making a cerviche requires 'cooking' the seafood with lemon or lime. I have attached step by step photos. It is actually just all of two photos. Easy really. When I see Meyer or Yuzu lemons on the supermarket shelves, those are what I would grab. These lemons surpasses regular lemons in taste. Are lemons not just lemons? Just like there are different varieties of oranges out there, the same goes with lemons. The two obvious ones that stand out for me are the two I mentioned. I like the Meyer lemon because it is sweeter and less acidic. Yuzu lemon has a heady perfume but not much juice. If you choose to use the Yuzu lemon, buy one Yuzu for its zest and whatever juice it has and buy a regular lemon to make up for the lack of Yuzu juice.
The other ingredient that makes the salad special is the '20 minutes pickled onions'. Do not omit this. This and the seafood citrus marinade is really what you would dress your salad with.
If you have truffle oil in your pantry which I have, drizzle about half a teaspoon over each serving of salad, focusing on the seafood. It takes it a notch up the yumminess level.
In my previous post, I wrote about trying to bake a Mango Chiffon Cake with the insane amount of mangos my mango tree had been diligently producing. I did bake one. The cake turned out well visually and texturally. It did taste good but it just did not taste of mangos which was what I was after. I did not want to add mango essence, in my mind that would be cheating. I added a good 1 and 1/4 cups of mango puree. Still not the faintest taste of mangos. I figured one would have to add that mango essence into the cake mix for any hope of a taste of mango. Just not for me. I would stick to my Dim Sum Mango Pudding recipe for a dessert that really taste naturally of mangos. I digress.
Back to the ceviche recipe. Do try it.
MANGO SALAD WITH SALMON AND SCALLOPS CEVICHE
Prep:
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20 minutes
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Cook:
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-
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Inactive:
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15 and up to 30 minutes in refrigerator
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Level:
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Easy
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Makes:
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4, 1 cup size servings. Refer to the introductory photo.
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Oven
Temperature:
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-
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Can
recipe be doubled?
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Yes
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Make
ahead?
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No
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Ingredients
For 'Cooking' the seafood
7oz (200g)) sashimi grade seafood
For instance, salmon, scallops, tuna, white fish. You could use one kind of seafood or a combination. I used salmon and scallops.
1/2 Tablespoon of lemon/lime zest from 1 lemon/lime
Zest just the top thin layer of the lemon/lime, you do not want the bitter inner white pith. Zest directly over your chosen crockery. Read more below.3 Tablespoons lemon/lime juice
I like Meyer or Yuzu lemons.
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sprinkling of pepper
For the '20 minutes pickled onions'
1/2 cup (50g) onion, thinly sliced
1 Tablespoon lemon/lime juice
1 and 1/2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Everything else
1 cup (100g) cucumber thinly sliced
I use cucumbers labelled as 'Japanese or Kyuri Cucumbers'. They are about 1" (2.5 cm) in diameter and about 10" (20.5 cm) in length. Skins and seeds which are underdeveloped can be eaten and are ideal for salads.
If you don't have access to these, you would mostly likely have to peel your cucumbers and if the seeds are large and unpalatable, get rid of the seeds as well.
3/4 cup (100g) cherry tomatoes halved
The oval shaped ones tend to be sweeter
1 cup (190g) mangos cut into 1/2" (1.5cm) cubes
As a guide, the alphabet buttons on my desktop keyboard are approximately 1/2" (1.5cm) squares
2 teaspoons truffle oil divided for drizzling over the 4 servings of salad (optional)
2 Tablespoons Ikura-Japanese salmon caviar or any other kind of caviar for topping (optional)
Directions
Slice fish into 3/4" x 1/4"x 1/4" (2cm x 0.5cm x 0.5cm) batons. Slice scallops horizontally into three slices. Take a look at the photo I posted directly below this paragraph. Choose a non reactive plate (glass, ceramic) that would be large enough to hold the cut seafood in a single layer.
Zest lemon/lime directly over the surface of the empty plate. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon salt and a light dusting of pepper over the plate.
Arrange sliced seafood on plate. Repeat the zest, 1/4 teaspoon salt, pepper process over the seafood. Drizzle the 3 Tablespoons of lemon/lime juice. Turn the seafood over to ensure they are coated with the lemon/lime juice. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate between 15 to 30 minutes.
This is how you would slice up the vegetables and mangoes.
Combine 1 Tablespoon lemon/lime juice, 1 and 1/2 Tablespoons sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Stir pickling liquid until it dissolves. Mix this with the onion. Refrigerate for 20 minutes or longer, it would not hurt.
The longer the onion sits in the picking liquid, more liquid would be drawn out from the onions. Not really a bad thing but your aim is to get the onions sweet and to lose some of its sharpness and not to draw out liquid from the onion. So taste the pickling onion and decide if you need to pickle them longer. It depends in part on the type of onion and lemon/lime you use. Adjust the lemon/lime, sugar, salt ratio to your liking.
The longer the onion sits in the picking liquid, more liquid would be drawn out from the onions. Not really a bad thing but your aim is to get the onions sweet and to lose some of its sharpness and not to draw out liquid from the onion. So taste the pickling onion and decide if you need to pickle them longer. It depends in part on the type of onion and lemon/lime you use. Adjust the lemon/lime, sugar, salt ratio to your liking.
Next toss the sliced cucumbers with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Do not let it sit too long or it would start to weep and go limp. If this happens, drain off the liquid. My advice is to use the sliced salted cucumbers immediately or within 5 minutes of salting.
Once your seafood has completed its 15-30 minutes, grab a large bowl and tip in all your ingredients including liquid from the seafood and pickling juices. Toss lightly. To serve, scoop out salad leaving behind the marinade and pickling juices. Divide into four plates and serve immediately.
As I mentioned, if you have truffle oil in your larder, drizzle it over each serving, focusing on the seafood.
To indulge your guests if not yourself further, try and get your hands on some Ikura, a Japanese version of cured salmon roe similar to caviar. If you cannot find it then substitute with caviar. Sprinkle 1/2 a Tablespoon of it over each serving. Those briny, salty balls randomly bursting into your mouth with each forkful of sweet, sour, tart tasting salad and ceviche is delicious!
Serve this and your friends and family would feel duly pampered.
Tips
- Do not try replacing lemon/lime juice with vinegar. The entire salad will taste too acidic and quite bad. I know as I have used vinegar to pickle the onions. I was too lazy to do a supermarket run. Awful.
- 1 regular lemon should give you 2 to 3 Tablespoons of juice.
- Cure the seafood any longer than 30 minutes and the seafood will lose the taste and texture you are after. It will continue to cure and become more opaque, start to look chalky, taste chalky and might fall apart. You are looking for semi opaque so stick to up to 30 minutes of 'cooking' time. As a guide, take a look at the photo top of this page.
- All the ingredients should be cold before you put the salad together. My uncut vegetables and mango will be in the refrigerator, nicely chilled. Remember to keep the onions pickling in the refrigerator as well.
As an alternative to those who do not care for seafood, I had also made a Mango Salad where I replaced the seafood with three ingredients:
1) 1/2 cup (50g) toasted walnuts
2) 4 x 1/8 of a circle of the round shaped Camembert, a soft creamy, white rind cheese
3) 1 Tablespoon of parsley.
Wedge each triangle of Camembert into each serving of salad instead of tossing it in with the rest of the ingredients as the cheese melts and loses its shape rapidly.
You could easily replace the Camembert with avocados. Would cooked cubes of cold chicken work? Possibly. I have not tried. If you do try that combination, let me know how it turns out.
I just made the Thai dessert, Mango Sticky Rice. It is glutinous rice that has been steamed and whilst still hot, drenched with a sweet coconut sauce so that each grain of rice soaks in as much coconut milkiness as possible. Serve with mangos of course. I have a microwave version that is easier on clean up and taste close enough to the steamed rice version. Should I post that recipe?
Tomorrow is 'Make Lasagne Day'. I make my own pasta sheets. The kitchen gets floury but everyone much prefers it to store bought sheets. The recipe calls for 4 large eggs and that helps makes those cooked pasta in the lasagne taste as soft as pillows. Not that I have tasted pillows but you know what I mean. And, would you like that recipe too?
I am heading to the kitchen now, there is a plate of Mango Sticky Rice with my name on it.
