Ceviche is chilled fish with citrus dressing and is a common dish in homes and eateries across Central and South America, practically wherever there’s a coastline. A fine combination of salt, acidity, freshness, and crunch yields a mouthwatering ceviche. Although it’s a common misconception that soaking raw fish in acidic liquids “cooks” the seafood, what happens is that the protein gets denatured. For flavor and food safety reasons, it’s crucial to utilize the freshest, most sustainably sourced fish and shellfish you can find when making any seafood meal.

A Few Important Things

Lean, white-fleshed fish are favored in Latin America for ceviche. Flounder, red snapper, and orange roughy are popular choices. Sashimi-grade tuna and halibut are also excellent choices. To maintain food safety, shellfish should be blanched before being utilized in ceviche recipes. Shellfish should be cooked in salted boiling water until almost opaque before being quickly plunged into ice water to chill.

The Coastal Recipe for Ceviche

Trim the fish – Debone, and skin the fish with a sharp knife. By gently cutting in a V-shape down either side of the bloodline, remove the bloodline and discard. Use tweezers to get rid of pin bones.

Dice it – When flattening cooled fillets, set them on a cutting board and gently press with your palm. If preferred, use a ruler to slice the fish into consistent pieces as instructed.

Marinate it – Fresh lemon juice should thoroughly cover the fish in a medium dish. (Leaving fish exposed to air will lead to a final texture that’s uneven.) Let it rest for 30 minutes.

Prep the ingredients – Prepare the mix-ins and garnishes while the fish marinates. To make the ceviche easier to eat, the other ingredients should be cut into pieces that are comparable in size to the cubed fish.

Drain or Retain?

In this recipe, the marinating liquid, referred to as ‘Leche de Tigre’ (tiger’s milk), is drained and thrown away.

Finishing Touch

To preserve their soft leaves from the acidic marinade, store delicate garnishes like herbs until right before serving. Toss marinated fish with veggies. If necessary, add a little salt, and don’t forget the chips!

The branded candle, or evidence thereof, became widespread in the 2010s when houses began to act as backdrops for social media posts. Perhaps it was a Le Labo Santal 26 candle burning peacefully next to a tidy stack of fashion books. Maybe it was an empty Diptyque glass holder now packed with cosmetic brushes and sitting on the end of a bathroom sink from a previously used Diptyque scent. These candles are still around and smell just as amazing as they did when they first came out, but there’s a new crop of options that are, well, odd.

These candles, which are often designed as affordable art items, concentrate on shape, color, and method. Take, for example, Hannah Jewett’s Sculptural Candles, which have curvy, abstract designs that change when lit, or Carl Durkow’s whimsical piled pillars, some of which are reminiscent of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s work. Janie Korn, a New York-based artist, used to produce ceramic figures, but she wanted to do something more immediate and engaging, so she started making hand-painted wax candles styled after Wendy Williams, Ally McBeal, and a bottle of Kewpie mayonnaise. “When you light a candle, there is an act of performance,” she explains. And there’s the issue of depletion – unlike most sculptures, you don’t have to live with a candle for very long.

Candles Are Art!

Candles patterned like everyday objects, such as a lamp or a bunch of grapes, have an odd aspect to them that seems appropriate for our bizarre and digitally saturated times. These candles, however, are made to make you smile as well as make you do a double-take. “They bring both delight and confusion,” says Samantha Margherita, a set designer in Los Angeles who found herself with less work and more time last year. She started constructing molds out of materials she had around the home and filling them with pastel-colored wax. Her first finished candles were a pale pink bitten apple and a neon-yellow pear, which she sold under the Altra Object brand.

3-D Printed Candles Require Precision

Margherita still creates every one of her candles by hand, carrying on a centuries-old craft practice. Chrys Wong sells Mexican Bouquet candles in her Los Angeles store Maison Modulare, which are traditionally given to a soon-to-be bride at the occasion of a proposal. A buyer asked Wong, who works with several families of manufacturers in Mexico’s Oaxaca region if the candles were 3-D printed at a recent pop-up. Not even a smidgeon. Each family has its unique method, although the core procedure is always complex: Large slabs of beeswax from Chiapas are first melted over an open flame. The wax is made into discs and then placed on tree branches to bleach in the sun for around 15 days before being sculpted into the style’s trademark florets and connected to pillar candles.

Last year’s lockdowns, when so many people were looking for unique but low-cost items to refresh suddenly all-too-familiar spaces, almost certainly boosted demand for the arty candle — Korn noticed an increase in orders, and Margherita’s creations sold out almost immediately as she listed them. In any event, it is fall, and a quirky-cozy candle might be just the thing needed.