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What to do when a man gives you a fish OR…Tuna 4 Ways

My husband RJ used to work for Navtronics, a marine electronics company in Portsmouth, NH.  In that job he crossed paths with boaters of all kinds – not only yachtsmen with large sailing vessels, young former frat guys with their speedboats, and old salts looking to update from lead lines to depth sounders, but also some of the region’s elite tuna anglers.  Since RJ hasn’t left Portsmouth, and still spends a fair amount of time down by the docks, he has kept in touch with many of these great contacts.  One such person came into port on Tuesday with an enormous 160 lb. tuna.

Tunas run anywhere between 70 and multi-hundreds of pounds, and if you’re an avid fisherman without a permit to sell the meat, the steaks pile up quickly in your freezer! However, a fast glance around the dockyard will probably find you RJ, ready with a cooler of ice to accept any generosity you’re inclined to bestow, as was the case earlier this week.
Which brings me to Tuesday evening when, as a dutiful wife, I received the meat my husband brought me and turned it into dinner.  This all sounds very “ugh, woman. here meat. me want food now” but I truly love the challenge of taking (literally) raw material and finding different ways to prepare it.  Fresh-caught tuna is the ultimate in this endeavor and an extra special treat.

Now, as any true tuna angler (or tuna eater for that matter) knows, the best way to eat tuna is raw, right on the boat, maybe with a splash of soy sauce or a dash of salt.  But we had about 7 pounds of the stuff and eating it all raw was a nauseating prospect.  So I approached the glut of meat in my fridge logically.  We had about 1 1/2 pounds of fatty tuna (toro) which is particularly prized for sashimi and comes from the belly and the napes (neck meat) of the beast, and about 5 pounds of ruby red tuna steak, cut from the loin.  Call me crazy but if anything was going to be eaten raw, I wanted it to be the best stuff.  So… the first order of business was Tuna Tartare made from the toro.

Our friendly neighborhood tuna fisherman had already trimmed the meat for us, but make sure that you check your pieces for silverskin (this is the term for pork and beef; I don’t know if it applies here though it looks the same) – the whitish, tough strip of gristly membrane that runs along the side of meat.  If you see it, just trim it off with a really sharp knife and try not to waste any of the meat.  Then, you’ll need:

2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon unseasoned rice vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
3-4 shakes of Tabasco (recipe called for 1 1/2 tsp. Wasabi paste but I didn’t have any and I don’t like it anyway…)
3/4 teaspoon Sesame Oil
8 oz sushi-quality ahi tuna steak, cut into 1/3-inch cubes (as I said above, I used the napes, not the steak, cuz it is better, but I don’t think they sell it in your average grocery store)
1 medium avocado, halved, pitted, peeled and cut into 1/3-inch cubes
1 cup of 1/3-inch cubes seeded English hothouse cucumber (I forgot this!)
1 green onion, finely chopped (I substituted finely minced red onion)
Toasted Sesame seeds (I used mix of black and white ones) and/or chopped chives

Whisk the first 5 ingredients in a medium bowl to blend.  Add tuna, avocado, cucumber and onion, stir gently to coat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or chives.

I served on little toasts like these but you can also buy wonton wrappers, brush them with olive oil and bake on parchment-paper covered baking sheet at 350 degrees for 9 minutes to make a more Asian and more funky presentation.

Tomorrow… what I did with all them steaks!!

Tags: Appetizer, Tuna