As the Buffalo Bills prepare to face a new opponent each week, fans take on the age-old arch-nemesis know as “hunger.” Never fear, Buffalo Rumblings has just the playbook to take down this foe. Each week, we’ll dive into enemy territory to scout their signature moves and put a “Buffalo” spin on it. Translated, each week we’ll share a themed recipe based on who the Bills are playing, including a custom wing sauce to go with each dish. Our opponent this week:

Miami Dolphins

Ceviche: Our taste buds travel to Florida for the second week in a row. Luckily, Miami knows how to use locally sourced ingredients to come up with something special. To quickly explain, ceviche is fish marinated in citrus juice rather than cooking. Don’t be alarmed though. I’ve included a canned tuna substitute if you’d prefer that route.

While ceviche has been described as “so Miami” there’s very little consensus on what to do with it. Once the fish has been marinated, the sky’s the limit. Soups, salads, tortilla topper, bowls and more all come into play. And the question of “which fish to use” is almost always answered with “what’s fresh?” So I’ll show you what I paired my ceviche with, but feel free to experiment.

Ceviche

Serves: 3-4
Active Time: 15 Minutes
Total Time: 30 Minutes to 6 hours

Ingredients

• 1 cup lime juice*
• ¹⁄2 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped onion
• 5-7 cilantro leaves, thinly sliced
• 8-10 oz. fish**, sliced thin or cut into small cubes
• ¹⁄₄ cup lime juice
• ¹⁄₄ cup hot sauce
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 2 Tbsp butter, unsalted

1. Prepare ceviche: Mix lime juice, salt, onions and cilantro in a large glass bowl.
2. Add thinly sliced fish to bowl and toss to thoroughly coat. There should be enough marinade to let the fish float a bit.
3. Cover and refrigerate, anywhere from 15 minutes to 6 hours***
4. Make Sauce: Put lime juice and hot sauce in a small saucepan on MED; simmer 4-5 min.
5. Add honey; stir until well blended.
6. Remove mixture from heat and add butter, stirring until blended.

Putting it together

The sauce this week should help pull together various ingredients with which you decide to pair your ceviche. I went with a few different items to experiment with flavor combinations and steered more toward a “bowl” format. Our plate features a bed of jasmine rice. Alongside the ceviche are avocado, tomato and jalapeño peppers. The sauce can be drizzled over the whole affair or used as a dip.

Wingin’ It Tips

*I found the “not-often-on-sale-in-Western-New-York” Meyer Lemons this week and added the juice from one of these into the marinade. Perfect timing for the recipe!

**If you’d like to use fresh fish and are a bit worried, here’s a helpful article to read first. For local markets, there are often prepackaged options which indicate they’re sushi ready. For this recipe, I prepared it using fresh, farm-raised salmon. Even if you don’t live close to large bodies of water, your options are usually plentiful—including high-quality frozen items in both the wild and farmed sectors.

***From scouring recipes, marinade times are mostly a matter of preference. Longer times provide more intense flavor but make the fish tougher. While some recipes advise waiting for the fish to look and act like it’s cooked, this process is not the same as cooking. For food safety purposes, there’s no difference in marinade times. If you’re going the canned tuna route, recipes to that effect suggest you should let it marinade for at least an hour. I’ll reiterate that this is a refrigerated marinade.

The Beer

With an old-school rivalry this week we gotta represent the team all the way. It’s the return of the Zubaz print cans!

Beer products provided by Labatt USA. Please drink responsibly.

Coming soon!

The Bills host the rival New York Jets for their second match-up of the season. The pizza last time was delish, so perhaps we’ll find something that (kinda) rhymes with that. Hint, hint...