I'm talking about Ceviche. No, not the gross dish consisting of raw fish marinated in lemon juice and seasonings. Ceviche is this amazing tapas restaurant located in St. Pete, Clearwater, Tampa, Orlando, and Sarasota.
This is just a section of the dining area at the St. Pete location, which is where we ate.
Part of the bar area in the basement where they also have an area for bands to play.
For those of you unrefined doofuses who don't know, tapas are basically a variety of appetizers that can be cold or warm. They originated in Spain, and the idea of having tapas is that everyone is sharing and trying the different foods instead of just eating one specific dish. The serving of tapas was designed to encourage conversation, and let me tell you, the dishes we had tonight were just as great as the conversation. It was Tapas Tuesday, and they have select tapas dishes for $4 each. We chose the papas fritas (potato chips with blue cheese), patatas bravas (fried potatoes with aioli), vegetales a la parilla (squash, eggplant, mushrooms, peppers, red onion, and asparagus grilled and drizzled with olive oil), berenjenas fritas (thinly-sliced fried eggplant), albondigas (veal and chorizo meatballs, which I obviously didn't eat), and calamares fritos (fried squid, which I also didn't eat). Every single thing we tried was absolutely fabulous, and I've worked on finding recipes so those of you not in the Bay area can try out some of these great tapas.
Papas Fritas
Ingredients
6 large potatoes
peanut oil for deep frying
salt
Directions
Wash and peel the potatoes. Slice very thinly. Put the slices in a bowl of very cold water and let stand for at least an hour. Dry well before frying.
Fry in oil in a deep, heavy pot (or a deep fryer if you have one) at 390 degrees until a light golden brown. Don't try frying too many at once, it's better to do them in batches. Once done frying, transfer each batch to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb the grease. Let cool and serve on a platter with blue cheese crumbles.
Patatas Bravas
Ingredients for Potatoes
4 large potatoes, cleaned, peeled, and cubed
oil of your choice
Directions
Fry the cubed potatoes in oil until they're crisp and golden brown. As you're waiting for your potatoes to fry, you can make your aioli to drizzle over top.
Ingredients for Aioli
4 large cloves garlic, peeled
1 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
juice of 1/4 lemon
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Directions
1
Process the garlic, salt, white pepper, and cayenne pepper in your Ninja until you have a paste. Transfer to a mixing bowl. Slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup of the oil, whisking constantly to form an emulsion. Whisk in lemon juice, slowly drizzle in the rest of the oil, whisking constantly. Pour over hot fried potatoes and serve immediately.
Vegetales a la Parilla
Ingredients
1 green pepper
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1/4 eggplant, peeled and sliced
1/4 squash, sliced
several stalks asparagus, tough ends trimmed off
3 or 4 Portobello mushrooms, gently cleaned
3 slices red onion
olive oil
salt, pepper to taste
*You can use any vegetables you like, these are just the ones used at Ceviche
Directions
Grill all the vegetables either on a grilling tray or you can use a griddle. Once they're hot and tender with light grill marks, transfer to a serving tray and drizzle with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.
Berenjenas Fritas
Ingredients
one eggplant, sliced very thinly
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
2 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
pinch of salt and pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, combine Panko crumbs, parsley, oregano, salt, and pepper. Very lightly brush the eggplant slices with olive oil and dip in the crumb mixture, coating each slice thoroughly. Place on a nonstick baking sheet. Bake 25 minutes, or until crispy. At Ceviche, the berenjenas fritas are served with honey. You could do this, or drizzling them with that aioli from the patatas bravas would be pretty delicious, too.
I didn't go to the effort of trying to find the recipes for the other two dishes because frankly, I don't give a damn about them and I don't intend to ever eat them. But I''m planning on heading back to Ceviche next Tuesday for more of the great tapas. I almost want to try new things the next time, but the ones I tried last night were so good it would be difficult to get anything but those. If you're ever in the Bay area, I highly, highly recommend going to Ceviche for Tapas Tuesday.
