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Tuna Another Way – Steaks on the Grill

The tuna steak is a truly beautiful piece of meat to behold.  Jewel-like in color, smooth and tender in texture and, if really fresh, flavored with a mild hint of brine and not a bit of ‘fishiness’.  I live with someone who, before his job took him to Portsmouth, would not eat fish of any kind.

But fresh raw tuna looks just enough like steak that even RJ cannot deny the supreme tastiness of this marine delicacy.  Now, he craves it!  And this is the recipe we developed that we think makes the most of the steak.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for some people, there are no exact measurements for this, but it is easily tweaked to perfection and taste preference.

First – make the dipping sauce.  Pour soy sauce into a small bowl or ramekin to about halfway up the sides.  Add a splash of teriyaki sauce and a small splash of sesame oil.  I really like to put some roughly chopped fresh ginger in here if it’s around, and some leaves of cilantro or scallion slices if I have them.  Let sit while you prepare the steaks.

This could not be simpler: First preheat your grill on the highest heat setting.  Pour onto a plate or shallow bowl about 1 tablespoon each of sesame seeds and black sesame seeds per steak.  That is, if you have 3 steaks, you want 3 tablespoons of white sesame seeds and 3 tablespoons of the black ones.  Note – as far as I can tell the black ones are really just for presentation so don’t feel like you have to spend a million dollars on them!!

Mix up the sesame seeds so the two colors are evenly distributed across the surface of the plate or bowl.  Take the first tuna steak and drop it flat onto the seeds.  Press hard on the top of the steak so that the seeds stick.  Flip the steak to the other flat surface and push down.  Move to a tray and repeat with the remaining steaks, adding more seeds if necessary, and re-distributing the seeds across the plate between each steak.

Now put all of the steaks on the grill and cook 3 minutes with the top on.  Flip the steaks and cook another 3 minutes.  Take the steaks off the grill – they will be very rare!

If you are feeling very fancy you can slice the tuna into thick rectangles to show off the beautiful red interior meat.  RJ and I usually don’t wait for that – we just start eating.

The dipping sauce’s role is pretty obvious.  Put it in the middle of the table and DIP your tuna into it for a sweet and salty contrast to the nutty taste of the seared sesame seed crust.

VERY IMPORTANT – If you received this very delicious and otherwise very expensive tuna gratis from a fisher-friend, do splurge on a nice bottle of wine.  Cakebread Chardonnay from Napa was so completely amazing with this meal – together with the tuna it was a truly transcendent experience I recommend to everyone.

A damn good bottle of wine for tuna

Tags: Entree, Tuna