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Jim Dixon wrote about food for WW for more than 20 years, but these days most of his time is spent at his olive oil-focused specialty food business Wellspent Market. Jim’s always loved to eat, and he encourages his customers to cook by sending them recipes every week through his newsletter. We’re happy to have him back creating some special dishes just for WW readers.
Our increasingly hot summer weather drives us to eat food that might make us feel cooler. Those from even more sweltering climes learned long ago that consuming sweat-inducing, chile-spiked foods do the trick.
Aguachile, literally chile water, might be the original salsa. The most common version, made with shrimp, started appearing on restaurant menus only in the last decade, but the indigenous people of Sinaloa used a simple blend of chile, water, and salt to flavor and rehydrate dried meat long before colonization. Aguachile nowadays typically combines fresh green chile crushed in water with cucumber, onion, lime juice, and raw shrimp. Unlike its close cousin ceviche, aguachile is served immediately so the shrimp doesn’t “cook” in the acidic lime juice.
Other forms of seafood often appear in aguachile, and smoked salmon works well with the other tart and spicy ingredients. Raw salmon would also be delicious, but requires the kind of fish butchery that many home cooks find daunting. Think of this smoked salmon version as a gateway aguachile. You can use the same approach with other seafood when you’re ready.
The very first aguachile used wild chiltepin peppers. The tiny round chiles are considered by many to be the progenitor of the hundreds of Capsaicin cultivars grown around the world. Numerous attempts to cultivate them all failed, and their growing popularity has resulted in overharvest of the wild plants, so if you buy chiltepins online you’re likely hastening their eventual disappearance. Just use jalapeño, or, if you want something even spicier, serrano chiles.
This completely inauthentic aguachile borrows from Spanish-style gazpacho by adding olive oil that emulsifies in the blender and adds some body along with more flavor. Finely chopped cucumber and radish contribute both a contrasting texture and even more cooling. Serve it with avocado and the world’s best tortilla chips from Portland’s own Hot Mama Salsa.
Recipe:
½ lb smoked salmon
1-2 jalapeño chiles
1 medium-sized shallot (somewhere between golf and tennis ball size)
6-8 sprigs of cilantro, both leaves and stems
1 lime, zested and juiced
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons water
½ teaspoon kosher-style sea salt
1 Persian-style cucumber
2-3 radishes
½ avocado, cut into ¼ inch cubes
Tortilla chips for serving
Coarsely chop the jalapeños, shallot, and cilantro. Combine them in the blender with the lime juice and zest, olive oil, water, and salt. Blend until smooth.
Cut the cucumber and radish into very small pieces (or thin matchsticks, depending on how much slicing you want to do). Remove the skin from the salmon and use your fingers to break into bite-sized pieces.
Combine the blended vegetables with the salmon, cucumber, and radish. Spoon onto a serving platter or bowl and top with the avocado. Serve with tortilla chips.