A recipe from Thomasina Miers

Food and wine matching from the Roving Sommelier.

This is a quick and simple recipe from award-winning chef and restaurateur, Thomasina Miers’ repertoire, which I love cooking from time to time. It takes no more than 30 minutes to prepare this tasty Mexican-inspired ceviche dish and makes for a perfect fish course as part of a dinner party or a stand-alone supper dish. Moreover, you can make it your own to suit your own taste buds and use different types of fish and seafood – whichever are your favourite preferences.

Thomasina is most famous for winning Masterchef in 2005. Due to her passion and enthusiasm for Mexican cuisine, she went on to open around half a dozen Mexican-inspired restaurants in London called Wahaca.

Get your fishmonger to give you either a whole fish or fillets of firm-fleshed white fish – e.g sea bass, halibut, mackerel, tuna and mullet are best for this recipe. However, you may also use scallops. On this occasion, I made the recipe with fresh sea bass.

150g fresh, line-caught sea bass

Juice of 1-2 limes

Juice of quarter grapefruit (either pink or regular)

1-2 teaspoon Wahaca Habanero salsa (or more to taste)

Small handful finely sliced red onion

Half fresh red chilli, finely diced

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1-2 tablespoons olive oil

Pinch of salt

2-3 radishes, finely sliced

Handful of chopped coriander

Slice the sea bass fillets wafer thin and put into a bowl. Mix the habanero salsa with the citrus juices and pour over the fish. Sprinkle on the chilli and the red onion, seasoning well with salt and pepper, and leave to marinate.

When you are ready to eat, remove the fish from the marinade and arrange fish slices on a small plate. Drizzle the fish with olive oil and scatter over the radish and the chopped coriander.

Serve with tortilla chips or fresh, warm ciabatta bread to mop up the fiery juices.

Wine suggestion – 2011 Errazuriz, Single Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc, Aconcagua Costa - (screwcap closure). The grapes for this Sauvignon Blanc have been sourced from the Manzanar Vineyard in the up-and-coming Aconcagua Costa region. This cool-climate appellation is sitauted just 12 km from the Pacific Ocean, where the maritime influence creates ideal conditions for cool-climate varieties. The wine displays freshness and delightful passion fruit and herbal notes combined with bright acidity and crisp mineral flavours leading to a pleasant, long finish.. Great with ceviche. A delicious combination. Alternatively, you could always enjoy a refreshing chilled beer, tequila or a classic Margarita cocktail. Natch!

Please note: to watch Tommi create the ceviche and other Mexican dishes just visit the Westfield Stratford City Restaurants page to watch the video.

I genuinely feel that, on the whole, Chilean wines have vastly improved over the years and are consistently better than ever before. This Chilean wine, amongst many others, including some great recipes and food and wine matching ideas are featured in my next book “An Epicurean Odyssey: Sommelier Stories“. For further details, please go to www.sommelier-stories.com

For further information on Wines of Chile, please go to www.winesofchile.org/site-map

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The epicurean odyssey continues…