Sesame Seared Tuna with Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce and Thai Cucumber Salad

Sesame Seared Tuna, Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce, Thai Cucumber Salad (http://wcpo.com/recipes)

4 8-oz. tuna steaks, approx. 1" thick
3/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tbsp asian sesame oil or canola
1 tbsp canola oil
Salt and freshly ground pepper

     Spread sesame seeds in shallow baking dish or pie plate.
     Pat tuna steaks dry with paper towel. Use 1 tablespoon of Asian Sesame Oil (dark) to rub both sides of the steaks, then sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper.
     Press both sides of each steak in sesame seeds to coat.
     Heat 1 tablespoon of Canola Oil in a 12" non-stick skillet over high heat.
     Swirl in pant to coat bottom of skillet. Add tuna steaks and cook 30 seconds without moving steaks. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue to cook until seeds are golden brown, about 1 ½ minutes total time for rare or 3 minutes total time for medium rare.
     To serve cut into 1/4" slices across the grain. (For medium cook to medium rare and take off covering loosely with foil for 5 minutes.)
     **To cook 2 tuna steaks, use half as many seeds, reduce the oil to 2 teaspoons on both the fish and the pan, and use a 10" non-stick skillet.
     If you are serving pepper lovers at your table, you can omit the sesame seed and press ½ teaspoon of cracked black or colored peppercorns into each side of the canola-oiled or olive oiled tuna steaks.
     Serving Suggestions: You can serve the seared tuna, thinly sliced, with wasabi, pickled ginger, soy sauce, baby spring greens, perhaps a Thai Cucumber Salad. Keep it light and simple as the seared tuna is a treat all on its own!

Ginger Soy Dipping Sauce

1/4 Cup Soy Sauce
1/4 Cup Rice Vinegar
1/4 Cup Water
2 Tsp. Sugar
2 Tsp. Fresh Ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 Tsp. Crushed Hot Red Pepper Flakes, or to taste
2 Tsp. Asian Sesame Oil
2 Green Onions, sliced thin
2 Tab. Fresh Cilantro, chopped

Combine all ingredients, with the exception of the onions and cilantro in a small bowl, whisking to incorporate. Stir in sliced green onions and chopped cilantro.

Thai Cucumber Salad

1 English Cucumber
1/4 Cup Seasoned Rice Vinegar
1 Fresh Serrano Chili Pepper, seeded and minced, or to taste
2 Tab. Chopped Salted Peanuts

     Peel and halve cucumber lengthwise. Using a small spoon, remove seeds. Cut cucumber into approximate ¼" thick slices. Toss the cucumbers and 1 teaspoon of salt together in a colander and set colander over a bowl. Drain like this for at least one hour. (You can also weigh cucumbers down with a ziplock bag of cool water placed on top of the cucumbers in the colander to achieve a better drain.) Mix the cucumber with the remaining ingredients and salt and pepper to taste.
     You can adjust the heat of this salad with the amount of peppers used. You can also add a little sugar or a half cup of thinly sliced red onion.
     Hope you want to try your hand at searing - there is no better fast food!

Notes from Margie about fresh tuna:

     When choosing fresh tuna, use your sense of smell - tuna should have no smell or the fresh smell of the sea. The color will vary depending on the type of tuna. Yellow fin is the most common tuna for searing and a real favorite. Yellow fin tuna should have a deep or rosy red color with no brown spots.
     The flesh should be firm, not mushy, and actually spring back after touching with your finger. Tuna steaks should be cut at least 1- 1 1/4 inch thick for searing (can be 1 1/2" for grilling.) This thickness will allow for varied degrees of doneness. You can cook fresh tuna steaks to different degrees of doneness just as you do beef steaks. Cooked rare or medium-rare, it will not be dry and has a lot of flavor. Compare it to a well-done steak, the more it's cooked, the less flavor and juiciness it has.
     Unlike a beef steak, a tuna steak does not need to rest.
     In fact, it will continue to cook with residual heat after being removed from skillet. A tuna steak seared for 1 -1 ½ minutes will be rare if you slice the steak as soon as it is removed from the skillet, releasing the internal heat. If you were to cover that same steak loosely with foil for 10 minutes before slicing, it would be cooked to medium at the end of the ten minutes because of the residual heat.
     When cooking, you can take a paring knife to slice barely into the steak at the middle to see doneness. Medium-Rare is opaque at perimeters and reddish pink at center, while rare is opaque at perimeters and translucent red and cool at center. Triangular cuts of tuna will take a little longer to cook than rectangular cuts as the heat takes longer to travel to the center.

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Last updated: March 30, 2003