Lime-cured sea bass with avocado over sweet potato

Ingredients

0 of 11 out on the counter

• 1½ lb sea bass fillet, skinless, sold for eating raw, cut in ½-inch cubes
• 1 cup fresh lime juice (from about 5½ limes)
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 small onion, red or white, sliced thin
• 1 jalapeño, seeded and minced
• ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 cup cubed ripe avocado
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 1½ cups baked sweet potato flesh, cut in ¾-inch cubes (about 3 medium sweet potatoes baked whole, skins not eaten)

All set! Everything is out. Time to bake.

Method

1. 1Bake 3 medium sweet potatoes whole on a sheet at 400 °F, pricked with a fork, 45 to 60 minutes. They are done when a knife slides in with no resistance; go by the knife, not the clock. Let them cool, peel them and cut the flesh in ¾-inch cubes until you have 1½ cups (300 g). Refrigerate within 2 hours, or within 1 hour if the kitchen is above 90 °F.
2. 2Keep the fish in the fridge at 40 °F or below until the moment you cut it. Cut it on a board that only raw fish touches (FDA), in ½-inch cubes, then wash the board, the knife and your hands in hot soapy water before you touch anything else.
3. 3Stir the salt into the lime juice in a glass bowl until it dissolves. Add the fish, cover and refrigerate 20 minutes, stirring once. The outside turns opaque and the middle stays a little pearly. The lime changes the colour and the firmness of the fish; it is not heat, and it does not make a fish safe the way cooking does (U.S. Food and Drug Administration).
4. 4While the fish cures, slice the onion, mince the jalapeño, dice the tomatoes, chop the cilantro and cube the avocado. Keep them cold.
5. 5Stir the onion, jalapeño, tomatoes, cilantro, pepper and olive oil into the fish and its juice. Fold in the avocado last so it stays in cubes.
6. 6Divide the sweet potato among 4 plates (about ⅜ cup, 75 g each) and spoon a quarter of the ceviche, juice and all, over each. The sweet potato drinks up the lime juice. Serve cold; the sweet potato can be cold or warmed to 165 °F first.
7. 7Raw fish is a raw-seafood dish: it may raise the risk of foodborne illness (U.S. Food and Drug Administration), so it is not for anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or with a weakened immune system (our kitchen practice). Do not leave it out more than 2 hours, or 1 hour above 90 °F (CDC). Eat it the day you make it and do not keep leftovers.