Natalia & her family make Peruvian Ceviche

Natalia learned to make ceviche from her Tía Josephine, who moved to the U.S. from Peru in 1941. In the interview, Natalia and her mom Rosario--Tía Josephine’s sister--describe Tía Josephine as not only the cook of the family but the caretaker who helped raise multiple generations before she began to develop dementia: “She has taken care of my mother, her sister, her brother, my daughter, me, my brother, my brother's kids. All of us.” Now that Tía Josephine is aging, Natalia takes on more cooking, keeping the family recipes alive because “a world without my Tía’s cooking doesn’t make sense.”

Even though this Peruvian ceviche is Tía Josephine’s recipe, each family member adds their twist. Natalia’s dad is from Uruguay, and instead of serving the ceviche over rice like Tía prefers, he introduced eating it on tostadas with sour cream. Natalia’s partner is Mexican-American, and his family adds tomatoes to their ceviche. And since Natalia has friends who are vegan and vegetarian, she developed a vegan version that substitutes hearts of palm for fish so that she can share this recipe with everyone she loves. The generations argue about how long the fish needs to cure in the lemon juice before it’s time to enjoy the ceviche, but the disagreements about details are just one more way to share in their love of food and each other.

In Natalia’s family, food plays several important roles. She says that “food is the thing that brings us together,” even after people have been arguing or just been busy during the day. When Natalia’s dad was in the military, his recipes connected the family to him during deployments, while cooking with him was a way to reconnect when he returned. Teaching each generation to cook is also a way of ensuring their independence. Rosario learned to cook out of necessity when she got married and left her childhood home. Natalia started learning to cook as a child and says her parents raised her to be “independent, 100%....fierce and a storm to be reckoned with.” Now Natalia is teaching her daughter, who is ten, to cook as well “so she doesn't have to depend on anybody.”

Though the fish in Colorado is less fresh than in Lima, or even New Jersey, where Natalia was born, she says she finds most ingredients at Walmart or Save A Lot. However, a few items, like ají amarillo, required a special trip to Luna Market.

Servings: 6-10 people
Time: 45-60 minutes

Start by boiling water in a pot to make sure there is enough water to submerge the shrimp.
While waiting for the pot to boil, start to prepare the Leche de Tigre which is the liquid that will “cook” the Swai fish. Begin by squeezing the lemons into a large bowl. Chop up celery and cilantro. Add the chopped celery, cilantro and the ginger and garlic to the lemon juice. Cut the Swai fish into bite size pieces and add to the bowl with the Leche de Tigre.
Cut the onion in half and cut into thin slices and place off to the side.
Start on the pica sauce. To a blender add garlic, jalapenos, serranos, ginger and Aji Amarillo (the Aji Amarillo is optional but adds a nice kick of spice to the dish)

If your water is boiling add the shrimp for 2-5 minutes, just until it is cooked (if the shrimp is too big feel free to chop it into smaller pieces).
Dice the avocado right before adding to make sure they stay nice and green.
Grab the bowl with the Swai fish and Leche de Tigre. Add the pica sauce, onion, avocados and shrimp to the bowl. Add salt to taste.This dish can be served after 20 minutes or stored in a covered container and served the next day! Serve on top of rice or sweet potato or corn or tostadas with sour cream.