Pacific Coconut Fish Canapes

The party season has certainly started out at our beach town Muriwai, this Saturday alone there where three big parties happening which probably covered most of the residency in one night. We decided to have a joint Christmas Cheer party this year and all invite a group of friends each for our ‘Bling on Muriwai Christmas’, the idea behind the bling was to give us all the opportunity to dress up for the night, being at the beach we are more often than not in casual clothes. Everyone contributed a plate or two of canapes, one of mine being a Pacific fish or ceviche canape.

Raw fish marinated in lemon or lime and coconut is a popular dish made in the Pacific Islands, it is similar to Ceviche but has the addition of coconut milk. It is an uncooked dish, the acid from the lemon is what ‘cooks’ the meat. I couldn’t find what it was actually called, it just seems to be know as ‘raw fish’ so if anyone does know what this pacific dish is called drop me a line.

It makes a lovely refreshing canape for the summer or as and entree with salad.

Ingredients – makes about 30

• Fresh firm white fish
• 1 cup coconut milk
• Juice of 3 large lemons
• 2 cucumbers
• 10 cherry tomatoes, sliced small
• Handful of chopped parsley
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic

Method

1. Slice the raw fish into small pieces
2. Place fish, lemon juice and garlic cloves into a bowl and leave to marinate for several hours or overnight in the fridge.
3. Slice the cucumber into 1/2 inch rounds and scoop out half of the centre of each round to make a small cup.
4. Drain the lemon juice off the the fish.
5. Add coconut milk, spring onions, sliced tomatoes and parsley to the fish. Season with salt & pepper to taste.
6. Leave for an hour for the flavours to mature before filling the cucumber cups, remove the garlic from the mixture.
7. Enjoy!