DANNY: Seth, welcome.

How are you?

SETH: I'm doing pretty well.

And, uh, I'm excited 'cause it looks like we're making some ceviche here today.

DANNY: We got everything on the table to make some Peruvian ceviche.

The lime, the salt, got the peppers, the fish the star, obviously.

SETH: Of course.

And so what kind of ceviche are you making today?

DANNY: So, today, I'm making the signature dish, the Mahi Mahi Avocado.

It's a ceviche that I came up with a couple years ago.

It has the classic elements.

So any Peruvian ceviche is gonna start with the peppers.

The classic always starts with the aji limo or the rocoto which is a, looks like a, a red pepper but it's really spicy.

It's not sweet at all.

It's really spicy.

The Mahi Mahi Avocado is gonna use the Peruvian yellow pepper, aji amarillo.

It's not as spicy, got a very distinct flavor as well but it's not commonly used in ceviche.

SETH: And these are all coming from Peru?

All these peppers?

DANNY: They're all coming from Peru.

If you don't have these, I mean, you could use jalapeño which would make an interesting ceviche but it's not gonna be a, a Peruvian ceviche.

SETH: Not a true Peruvian ceviche, all right.

Um, so how do you put this together here?

DANNY: So a lot of restaurants use tilapia.

We do as well.

But for this dish I felt that the mahi mahi, a fresh filet of mahi mahi, works well.

I like the firmness of it.

I'm gonna cut it in half.

So, in the old days, we would just take this, just chop it up in like thicker pieces.

So we like to cut the fish sashimi style.

So now that we have it sliced up, let's get a bowl.

Make sure it's cold.

Temperature in ceviche is really important.

SETH: Of course.

DANNY: Everything cold.

Cold fish, cold bowl.

SETH: I like it out here.

I like, I like that there's no stove, no oven.

It's nice and cool.

DANNY: All right.

Fish, simple.

Take some salt.

Gonna add the garlic.

Aji amarillo paste which is, obviously, yellow.

SETH: And this is the one that's gonna give it a little bit milder flavor?

DANNY: Correct.

Correct, correct.

And take some, uh, cilantro.

A good amount of cilantro.

First thing we're gonna do is just to mix this in real quick, okay?

Now the salt is really working the fish.

All right, so take lime, not lemon.

This right here is freshly squeezed.

SETH: And this is what's gonna do all the actual cooking magic.

DANNY: Correct.

Correct.

So, is there heat on that?

No, there's no heat.

(laughs) There's no fire.

Really, the lime kinda does the same thing heat does.

So it's breaking down the protein in the fish.

SETH: It seems like magic.

It doesn't really seem like it would actually work but I guess it does.

DANNY: If I take a, a raw piece and a cooked piece, you'll see the difference.

SETH: And don't get me wrong, I'll eat raw fish all day long.

(laughs) I just, uh, I'm just always amazed that lime juice can actually do the job of cooking fish.

DANNY: It, it's, it's really amazing.

But it, it honestly really works.

So now it's been sitting for a few minutes.

Um, I would say it's, you know, pretty cooked.

SETH: Ready to go.

DANNY: So we're gonna add two things.

Like I said, this is a different ceviche but it's still very classic, right?

So you wanna keep the Peruvian corn.

So you notice these things are really big.

SETH: Those are monsters.

DANNY: Little bit of onions.

This is a, um, leche de tigre.

It's gonna add a little more body to the ceviche.

And the last thing, the avocado.

And now, we're just gonna mix it in.

So it's gonna get really creamy because the avocado starts breaking down.

So...

It's perfect.

It's perfect.

It's ready to go.

Let's plate.

Got a bowl.

Take some lettuce.

Not everybody eats the lettuce but a true ceviche connoisseur will actually take the, what's left at the bottom, dip the lettuce in there, and just take a bite.

SETH: Get every last bite of that marinade you can.

DANNY: Oh yeah.

Oh yeah.

All right, we'll take this, set it here in the middle.

I'm gonna add the sweet potato, gonna add some cancha which gives it that crunch factor.

Put those microgreens on top.

And we're done.

SETH: That is beautiful, Chef.

DANNY: Ready to dig in?

SETH: Let's do it.

DANNY: Let's go.

SETH: All right.

Chef, thank you so much for showing me how you make this Mahi Mahi Avocado.

DANNY: Seth, thanks for the visit.

Um, as you know, we're a Peruvian restaurant.

What better way than a pisco sour cheer.

SETH: Hey, cheers to that.

Thank you.

DANNY: Salud.

SETH: Salud.

Delicious.

(laughs) So, Chef, I see a spoon sticking out of the plate but also a knife and fork.

How do I attack this thing?

DANNY: It's not a soup.

It could look like a soup in a bowl but it's not a soup.

The spoon is really left there for the very end.

You'll see that there's a little bit of juice, or leche de tigre, as it's called.

So you take the spoon and you drink.

SETH: All right, well I know we're not letting anything go to waste today.

DANNY: So if you got lucky, you got the avocado, the fish, some onions, maybe some corn.

But you can definitely taste the, um, the creaminess of the avocado.

SETH: Yeah, that's just outrageous.

(laughs) That is so good, Chef.

And I can even, even the avocado, that acidity from the marinade is starting to break that down as well a little bit too.

I gotta get a few pieces of that toasted corn as well.

DANNY: So you're, you're missing one thing.

The sweet potato, gotta try that.

SETH: Oh my goodness.

That fork just went through like a hot knife through butter.

(laughs) DANNY: You probably, um, taste a little bit of cinnamon?

SETH: It's like a pumpkin pie right there.

(laughs) Just a soft, delicious slice of pumpkin pie.

That's just a sweet potato?

DANNY: That's a sweet potato.

I did give you the cinnamon trick.

There's some other things we add to it.

SETH: And, uh, you know, with plenty of ceviches I've had that just blast you with heat, I like that it's almost a little creamier, a little more mild too.

DANNY: I felt like, with the avocado, it, it maybe didn't go well with a lot of heat.

But, don't get me wrong, you know, you want it spicy?

You get it spicy.

SETH: So this is more of the Peruvian peppers?

DANNY: Yeah.

I would try the, uh, I would try the rocoto.

SETH: That's the red pepper that, um... DANNY: That's the, the one that looks... SETH: Packs a surprising amount of heat?

DANNY: Yeah.

SETH: Mmm.

DANNY: That'll add some heat.

SETH: That will add some heat for sure.

And, Chef, you came to the US at a pretty young age, right?

DANNY: I was actually eight years old.

Went to school here and grew up here.

Cooking connected me to my roots.

And, of course, there's a big Peruvian community in northern Virginia.

It's surprising.

I mean, I get new Peruvians coming all the time.

And that was my goal.

Peruvians can be very picky, I'm sorry.

We love good food.

Um, but also, more importantly, introduce it to America.

And here in Great Falls, that's what we keep doing every day.

You know, we get people trying ceviche.

People that may be hesitant, they try it and they're like, "Wow, this is good."

SETH: It's legit.

Well, uh, thank you again so much, Chef, for showing me how you prepare this.

Such a delicious dish.

Hey, salud.

DANNY: Salud.