greater tuna

It’s about time we got some seared tuna on this blog. (Actually, my mom put a recipe on here, but I didn’t get to taste it.) This was the main course of Tott’s celebration dinner: seared tuna with a beurre blanc over rice, sautéed snow peas, and ginger pureed carrots.

Step 1: Get some good tuna. Sushi-grade – because the middle of this is going to just on the rare side of raw. But if you have good tuna, that will be delicious. (By the way, my favorite way to get good fish is to make friends with a restaurant kitchen manager. Retail is for suckers.)

Orange-Ginger Seared Tuna
(4 light servings)

1 lb sushi-grade tuna (2 steaks)
2 oranges
2 Tbs soy sauce
5 quarter-sized slices of fresh ginger
¼ tsp Sriracha hot chili sauce
1 dash sesame oil
Black pepper

Make your marinade. Zest about half an orange into a bowl. Squeeze the juice from both oranges into said bowl. Add everything else (except the tuna), and stir it all together.

Put your tuna in a Ziploc bag. Dump in the marinade. Squish around to ensure even coverage. Marinate the tuna in the fridge for 45 minutes to an hour.

I seared the tuna in a cast iron skillet. The trick is to make it very hot. Heat the pan on high until it begins to smoke a little. Add just a bit of oil to just barely coat the pan.

Remove the tuna from the marinade, making sure the ginger slices don’t stick to the fish. Lay the tuna on one side and cook for 1-2 minutes. Flip the tuna, and cook for another 2 minutes.

Slice thinly and fan over a bed of rice. We topped this off with a beurre blanc (which made it richer and fancier), but Kaytie made the sauce, so you’ll have to wait for her to post that recipe.