Pumpkins are here… and I’m making ceviche

Cooking in the season of cognitive dissonance + Rockfish ceviche with corn, passionfruit and Meyer lemon recipe

The pumpkins are here and I’m still sweating. At the market, piles of gourds – warty, white, striped and giant orange – send signals to my brain that it is time to bring sweaters out of storage. Meanwhile temperatures last week were the hottest in Southern California they have been all year, and it is all we could do to don bathing suits and lounge in any pool that would have us. Pumpkin spice has infiltrated popcorn and waffle mixes heralding holidays of starchy vegetables still months away while tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant are still in their prime. This is a season of cognitive dissonance.

My son may be coloring leaves in shades of rust at pre-school, but it is good to remember that it is truly summer for a week yet. With the wild weather brought by climate change, we might have more weeks like the past one still to come this fall, stretching that summer feeling closer and closer to the days when pumpkins actually do reign. Which is why even when bags of Halloween candy are telling my brain it’s time for long simmered stews and steaming pots of soup, I yearn to turn away from the stove and think of what to cook without cooking.

Perhaps nothing epitomizes cooking without heat better than ceviche. A dish as adaptable as it is simple, ceviche, at its most basic, is fish or seafood is marinated in acid (citrus or tomato juice or some combination thereof). The acid in the juices breaks down the proteins in fish, rendering it tender and turning the flesh opaque. The same thing happens when you cook fish on the stove or grill. The benefit of the acid treatment is that the process is slower, gentler, leaving the chunks of fish moist while simultaneously seasoning them in the juices.

You can almost always find some variety of raw, marinated fish on restaurant menus in San Diego. My local taco shop does a tomatoey version with diced cucumber and the tiniest bay shrimp. The occasion restaurant where we take out of town guests does one Peruvian style with leche de tigre served with long strips of fried plantains for scooping.

When it’s so hot you can’t fathom the idea of turning on a stove, you can pay a restaurant to do it for you, or you can make ceviche yourself, no heat required. Once you get past the basic formula, it is easy to adapt to your taste, and whatever wacky combination of season and weather you happen to find yourself in.

While temperatures were clinging to the 90’s, even at the beach, I picked up a piece of Pacific rockfish with my eye on pairing it with the best of this moment – the in-between space of summer and fall. At home, we had a few Meyer lemons the size of softballs, from a neighbor’s tree, also a bowl of thirty or so wrinkly passionfruit gifted by a friend whose plant is producing more than she knows what to do with. Sweet corn, charred lightly on the grill and a couple of medium hot Calabrian chilies from the garden could round out the base. A little chopping and mixing later, all it needed was a bowl of tortilla chips and some salad greens to call it a meal.

The Pacific rockfish I used is certified sustainable and gets a “best choice” from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch. It is also a really affordable choice, often available even at our splurgiest markets for around $10 – 11 a pound. If you can’t find rockfish, sub in snapper or whatever firm, white fleshed, preferrable sustainable, fish you can find near you.

For the acid base, Meyer is milder than other varieties of lemon, but you can swap it out with a mix of lemon and lime, or lemon and orange for a different taste. And if you don’t have a neighbor with an abundant passionfruit bush, finely diced red pepper would add sweetness and crunch.

As you can see, this recipe is just a base, as flexible and adaptable as we all must be in these strange weather times. Make it in winter when citrus is at its peak with sliced radish and fennel. Or, later this fall, when the temperatures drop, put on your favorite nubby sweater and stir up a batch with sweet potatoes, or finally put those all those pumpkins to good use.

Listen: If you are one of the many people who like to eat fish but are intimidated to cook it at home, check out this podcast episode from Splendid Table, “Real world seafood cooking with Genevieve Ko and Jennifer Bushman”.  Originally broadcast in 2021, it references a time when many people were broadening their home cooking repertoires in deep pandemic. Recently re-aired, the techniques mentioned in this episode for making use of frozen and canned fish and seafood are as relevant and useful today as they were then.

Listen: On a week when fires fueled by unseasonably hot temperatures are raging in California, Idaho and Oregon, the timing is good for NPR to air a series on food systems as part of its “Climate Solutions Week”. Do food delivery services produce less emissions than cooking at home? Can cabernet survive climate change and will agave replace grapes in California’s wine region? A thoughtful dive into our personal habits as well as the people at the forefront of systemic change.

Rockfish Ceviche with Corn, Passionfruit and Meyer Lemon

Serves 4 as a light main course or 6 as an appetizer

Note: Pacific rockfish is certified sustainable and gets a “best choice” from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s seafood watch. If you can’t find this, sub in snapper or whatever firm, white fleshed, medium thickness (preferably sustainable) fish you can find near you.

• 12 oz. Pacific rockfish, snapper, cod, pollock, or other sustainable firm white fish fillet, skin and pin bones removed

• 1 cup Meyer lemon juice

• 1 tsp. sea salt

• ¼ large red onion

• 1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and grated (about 1 T. of grated ginger)

• One ear of corn, cooked (about 1 cup)

• 1 -2 T. minced chilies, Calabrian, serrano, or jalapeno

• 4 T. Passionfruit pulp (from 2 passionfruit)

• 2 T. mild, fruity olive oil

• 2 ½ T. cilantro, chopped

• Tortilla or plantain chips, crispy tostada shells, or butter lettuce leaves to serve

Cut fish into ½ inch cubes. Place in a medium glass or plastic bowl. Pour over the lemon juice and stir in salt. Make sure all pieces of the fish are submerged. Cover the bowl and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cut red onion into paper-thin slices about 1 inch long. Peel and grate ginger. Remove kernels of corn from the cob. Mince chilies. After 30 minutes remove the bowl from the refrigerator. Fish should be opaque. Stir in onion, ginger, corn, and half the chilies along with passionfruit pulp and olive oil. Stir to combine and taste. Add more salt or chilies if desired. Stir in cilantro. Let sit for another 15 – 30 minutes to deepen flavors. Serve chilled with chips, tostada shells, or lettuce leaves.