Grouper Ceviche That Everyone Will Love

For the third recipe in, Frozen In Time: 5 Recipes From My Last Florida Keys Black Grouper, I decided to make some “fresh,” ceviche. I put the, “fresh,” in quotations, because when I was eating this ceviche I almost forgot that I had made it from fish that I had frozen months earlier. I’ve been making ceviche for years, typically with fish other than Black Grouper, but despite what most people may think, grouper makes great ceviche if you age it properly. Here’s a list of other fish I make this recipe with:

Cero Mackerel
Yellow Jack
Mutton Snapper
Mangrove Snapper
Wahoo
Spiny Lobster

There are probably more species that I’ve made it with, but those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head. For some reason, I always had this notion that cero mackerel wouldn’t make good ceviche, but if I’m being honest, it’s my favorite now. The only fish I probably wouldn’t try this recipe with, would be tuna, although I have heard of people doing it.

The ease and simplicity of this recipe, is what makes it one of my favorites, and because it’s relatively quick to put together, I usually make this for lunch. When I lived in the Keys, I would often eat ceviche on my lunch break, made from fish I had gotten a few days before. Because everything goes into one bowl, it doesn’t make too much of a mess in your kitchen. Aside from a chef knife, cutting board, and a spoon, you won’t end up with too many dishes in your sink after making this.

The Components Of The Grouper Ceviche

The main component of this black grouper ceviche, aside from the fish, is citrus. You need some sort of citrus juice to aid in “cooking” the fish while it marinates overnight. I typically use lime juice, sometimes fresh, sometimes store bought, depending on how much I’m making. Fresh will typically be better, of course, but store bought is good too! I’ve also mixed the lime juice with lemon juice, pineapple juice and even orange juice. While I have made ceviche in just a few hours before, I’ve had the best results letting it sit overnight, or at least 8 hours.

The second component of ceviche is what you mix in. I always use fresh cilantro, red onion, and then some sort of spicy pepper (or not so spicy, depending on who I’m serving it to). For this recipe, I chose a small red chili pepper, to add some flavor and color to the ceviche. It’s not too spicy, but still has a little kick.

I’ve made ceviche with peppers ranging from spicy to sweet, with the hottest of all being some homegrown Serrano peppers I grew back during COVID, they were almost inedible. I’ve made this recipe with avocado mixed in and some other ingredients that I happened to have on hand at the time, but for this recipe, I just included cilantro, red onion, and a small red chili pepper.

The final component, is what you eat the ceviche with, which for this recipe, I recommend tortilla chips. Choose whatever brand you want, I know most people have their favorites. I’ve also eaten ceviche with pieces of bread before too, which wasn’t bad. This is also great served as an appetizer for multiple peoples. You really can’t go wrong with this recipe! I hope you enjoy it! If you want to see what you can do with the leftover ceviche juice, check out this recipe: Black Grouper Ceviche Juice Shooters.

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