Tuna Surprise

A while back we bought some beautiful frozen tuna steaks at Central Market’s excellent seafood department. They have a huge freezer area with tons of different bulk seafood items including salmon burgers, crab cakes, shrimp, salmon sausages, and the tuna steaks. Today Zoey and I revisited Central Market, and picked up some aparagus among other things.

Tonight Rona roasted the aparagus in a little bit of olive oil, started some brown rice, and marinaded the tuna steaks. Once everything else was ready, a few minutes on each side in the skillet produced some awesome tuna steaks. Here’s the recipe:

Marinade:

Ingredients:
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp minced ginger root (we took the Microplaner to frozen ginger root)
1/4 cup teriyaki sauce
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp chili pepper flakes (we used the ones you see at pizza places)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 Tbsp chopped cilantro

Mix all of this in a non-reactive container, and add the steaks, turning them to coat with the marinade. You can use a large freezer bag–just add everything, squeeze out all the air, and zip it up. Marinade for 1/2 hour at room temperature, or if longer keep it in the fridge until 30 minutes before you cook.

Cookin’ Up Da Tuna:

Heat a large skillet up to medium high heat. Remove the tuna from the marinade and dry on paper towels. Once the pan is hot pour some of the marinade into the skillet (about 2 Tbsp). Add the steaks to the pan and shake it a bit so the tuna doesn’t stick. Sear 2 1/2 minutes on the first side, then flip and sear 1 1/2 minutes on the other side. This will leave the middle nice and rare. If you like your tuna more done, cover the pan, turn down the heat to medium, and cook it longer, flipping as needed.

Rona cooked the tuna a little quicker than that, so it was mighty pink inside, though beautifully done on the outside. Despite my affection for sushi, I was a little put off by eating cooked tuna that was so pink in the middle. Next time I’m not going to worry about it at all, because this was incredible tuna, and a terrific meal.