Xec + Pebre

Recently, a few fellow gringas in Chile requested that I share more of my Chile friendly recipes. I'm going to try to post at least one per week on the blog. I'll tag all posts containing recipes as "Chile friendly recipe." Of course, these delights can be enjoyed in other countries as well. I'll make note of any changes I would make if cooking in North America when necessary for those of you following in the United States (or elsewhere!).

Right. Let's get to it.

I have one main issue with Chilean food-- lack of creativity. Chile is a country with a variety of abundant, cheap, and fresh ingredients. It's also a country that has some pretty good, yet standard, traditional dishes. There is cazuela (meat and veggie stew), porotos granados, pastel de choclo (shepard's pie like thing), empanadas, and pebre (cilantro and tomato based salsa), just to name a few. What gets to me is that this country has such a fantastic place to start from, yet you still see the same main dishes in every restaurant with the same three identical choices of boring side dishes, rice, mashed potatoes, or french fries. Oh my god after a year and a half of this I am losing my mind!! Tastes buds want to die!! Pleeeasse, could someone give porotos granados a little kick? Maybe occasionally change the veggies in cazuela? Possibly a new side dish every once and awhile?? And don't even get me started on the desserts...

So, that's why I cook at home. I cook a lot.

Today I had some fresh fish on hand from Saturday's feria trip and I wanted to do something light, healthy, and full of flavor with it. I instantly thought of xec, a Mexican citrus salsa I learned about from one of my culinary gurus, Mark Bittman. However, after such a fantastic Chilean market experience yesterday, I felt like using my Chilean ingredients to make a truly Chilean dish. And then it hit me. Xec + pebre = the perfect topping for fish. Flavorful. Light. Salsa-ish. Citrus-ish. All ingredients already in my refrigerator. Yes.

Here is the recipe for my Citrus Pebre. It's wonderful on fish and would probably be quite good on other meats, beans, rice, or with tortilla chips.

1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
1/2 small red onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 lemon, sectioned (like you would do with a grapefruit) with juice
2 clementines, sectioned with juice
1 small bunch of cilantro, chopped
1/2 aji (medium heat chili pepper), finely chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients. Serve over fish. Simple as that.