This recipe is a little
reminder of summer for all my snow-bound friends. Heck, it’s even been a little
wintry here in southern California. By “wintry” I mean a little rainy and
below 60 some days. Please don’t throw snow at your computer screen.
A few months back, a co-worker wrangled this tuna off the California coast, and I ran home and cooked it ASAP. Fresh tuna deserves to go from ocean to stomach with as little cooking as possible in between. I am not brave enough to prepare my own fish completely raw, however, so pan-seared was the way to go. Fresh caught fish is an occasion at the Walton household, so I bought some of these decorative-looking mini mixed greens from Trader Joe’s that always remind me a little of alfalfa. Turns out they’re not just pretty, but yummy, too. I seared the tuna and made some pickles to top it with rice vinegar, as well as a little horseradish sauce I made. (Trader Joe’s didn’t have wasabi, which probably would have been better.)
Pickles
1 cucumber, cut in small
cubes or slices
1 very small red onion,
or 1/2 a medium red onion, chopped in small pieces
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Mix ingredients in a
metal or ceramic bowl. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. (I just whipped this
up and stuck it in the fridge the night before.)
Sauce
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I
can’t eat eggs, so I use vegan mayo, which is better than the real store-bought
stuff IMHO)
1 1/2 tablespoons rice
vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon hot chili
sauce (I prefer Sri Racha, but I’m sure Tabasco would do)
2 tablespoons
horseradish
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Tuna
Tuna
Sesame seed oil
Pat the tuna dry and
sprinkle with pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high. Add the oil, then the
tuna. Cook the tuna on each side until it is golden—usually under a minute.
Serve tuna topped with
pickles and horseradish sauce.