Tuna Steaks
From Ars Cookbook
Submitted by Jehos
If you've never had tuna steaks, you owe it to yourself. They taste nothing like the crap in a can--they're very light. Expect to pay $8-$12 per pound. This is the sort of thing you make for family or dates or something.
Ingredients
- Good tuna steaks. I recommend yellowfin or albacore. If at all possible buy fish that has NOT been frozen. Fresh fish has a totally different texture to frozen fish. "Fresh Frozen" is an oxymoron! Fair enough if you can only shop at a big market with no fresh fish section but get fresh if you can. If the butcher/meat counter has some sitting out and they are not be all that great looking, ask if they have others, or maybe even some frozen ones.
- Olive oil
- Soy sauce
- Salt
Directions
- Thaw the tuna for use if you were unlucky and couldn't get fresh. This takes about 15 mins if you just put the vacuum-packs in some cool water.
- Heat up something made of cast iron. My dad cooks them on the grill on a cast-iron flat griddle. I make them in a cast iron skillet on the stove. It's really all the same. You want to use medium heat, and make sure you get the cast iron whatever fully heated before you put the tuna on it since cooking time is important.
- On a plate (or something relatively flat that can hold a bit of liquid), mix olive oil and soy sauce.
- Coat the tuna steaks on both sides with the olive oil/soy sauce mixture and slap them on the cast iron.
- Cook for about 5-7 minutes per side. You can see the steaks go from pink to white--when the white gets to the middle, it's too late. You want it just a little bit red in the middle or the steak can be dry, no good restaurant will serve well-done tuna unless you insist. Ideally you only want to cook each side once to prevent sticking and a dry taste.
- Remove from pan, sprinkle lightly with salt, and serve with grilled veggies, rosemary new potatos, honey-glazed carrots, or whatever other gourmet sides suit your fancy. Leftover steaks make great sandwiches if you put them on a hamburger bun.
