While I was menu planning this week I pulled out my recipe notebook that I use to write down family or passed down recipes and to store recipes I’ve cut from magazines. I started this notebook right after college and haven’t really looked through it in a while.

I found this recipe that I cut from the May 2007 Cooking Light for Tuna with White Bean and Charred Onion Salad. I was in the mood for a lighter dinner and had fish in mind so this was perfect.

The original recipe calls for grilling the tuna and the onions but our gas grill is not working and Brandon didn’t want to fire up the Egg for a three minute tuna sear so I decided to prepare this inside. Although there are several elements to this dish, nothing is too complicated and it was easy to put together. Instead of grilling the onions, I cooked them in a cast iron skillet and let the edges get a little charred. I seared the tuna in a hot skillet for about 2 minutes per side.

I made several modifications  to the recipe. First, I doubled the marinade and only used two tuna steaks. I still made the full recipe for the white bean salad because I wanted to use the leftovers for lunch. Second, I omitted the parsley from the white bean salad and used a mixture of fresh rosemary and basil instead. And third, I omitted the capers because I detest them!

I was very pleased with how this dish turned out. The white bean salad was delicious and paired nicely with the tuna. I enjoyed plating the tuna and white bean salad over mixed greens but you could easily skip the mixed greens and just do a vegetable on the side.

Maybe I’ll have to turn to my recipe notebook for inspiration more often!

Tuna with White Bean and Charred Onion Salad
(Recipe adapted from Cooking Light, May 2007)

Ingredients:

FOR THE TUNA
1  tablespoon  grated lemon rind
3  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
1  teaspoon  Dijon mustard
1  teaspoon  olive oil
1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
1  garlic clove, minced
4  (6-ounce) tuna steaks

FOR THE SALAD
1  medium Vidalia or other sweet onion, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
3  tablespoons  red wine vinegar
1  tablespoon  olive oil
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
1/4  teaspoon  Dijon mustard
1  garlic clove, minced
1/2  cup  chopped seeded peeled cucumber
1/4  cup  chopped flat-leaf parsley (I subbed basil and rosemary)
1  tablespoon  capers (omitted)
1  (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
6  cups  mixed salad greens

Directions:

FOR THE TUNA
Combine the marinade ingredients in a large zip-top plastic bag or a shallow dish. Add tuna to bag or dish and seal or cover. Marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes, turning once. Remove tuna from bag and discard marinade. Prepare grill if cooking outside. Place tuna on grill rack coated with cooking spray and grill 2 minutes on each side for rare or until desired degree of doneness. Alternatively, cook in a skillet over medium high heat with a bit of olive oil for about two minutes per side.

FOR THE SALAD
Place onion slices on grill rack coated with cooking spray and grill 5 minutes on each side or until tender. Cool and chop. Alternatively, cook onions in a cast iron skillet over medium heat with olive oil, salt and pepper until tender and browned.

These Chile Crusted Tuna Tacos felt like a great choice for a warm spring night. They were a light and refreshing dinner paired with sangria and Black Bean and Quinoa Salad. Tuna is one of our favorite fish choices and I was eager to try it in fish tacos instead of our usual Asian preparations (like this and this).

Although the recipe required preparation of several different elements, it still felt relatively simple to prepare. I was able to take my time with each of the steps and enjoy dicing, simmering and sautéing. The end result was a tasty twist on fish tacos – sweet, spicy, crunchy. Yum!

I was disappointed that I was not able to use the jicama that the recipe called for. It was mushy and moldy at the store. I ended up making a game-time decision to sub purple cabbage for some crunch. It worked but next time I would definitely do the jicama.

If you’re a fish taco lover or looking for a warm weather spin on tacos, these are a great option!

One Year Ago: Tropical Carrot Cake

Chile Crusted Tuna Tacos
(Recipe source Gourmet, August 2003)

Ingredients:

FOR THE SAUCE
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 tablespoon minced canned chipotles in adobo (including sauce)
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

FOR THE TUNA
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cracked black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 lb (1 1/2-inch-thick) sushi-grade tuna steak
2 tablespoons olive oil

TO FINISH
4 (9- to 10-inch) flour tortillas
1 cup matchstick (1/8-inch-thick) pieces of jicama (from 1 small jicama, peeled) (I subbed shredded cabbage)
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro (omitted – Brandon will not eat cilantro!!!)
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 firm-ripe California avocado
1 cup loosely packed arugula, coarse stems discarded

Day 8 of 68 Days of Gourmet! Only 60 more posts to go! I made an exciting purchase last night – The Gourmet Cookbook. It includes over 1,000 recipes. I started flipping through it last night and have already flagged well over 60 recipes that I want to try and that was just appetizers, soups and salads! It’s going to be tough to narrow it down but I’m happy to have this resource in my kitchen.

Sashimi grade tuna steaks were on sale at the grocery this week and they looked great. I picked some up on my weekly shopping trip. I found this recipe that included an amazing looking marinade in Gourmet. The marinade reminded me of a recipe I’ve always loved that my parents use for salmon.

It was just as good as I’d hoped. While cooking the tuna, I brought the marinade to a boil so we could spoon extra sauce over our fish and rice. The combination of the teriyaki and soy sauce with the fresh ginger and garlic was so delicious. I will definitely be making this marinade again for tuna and also for salmon. I usually have most of the ingredients in my pantry so it’s a great standby fish preparation.

Asian Marinated Tuna Steaks
(Recipe adapted from Gourmet, September 1996)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons firmly packed brown sugar
1 tablespoon Sherry or white wine
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely diced
2 scallions, chopped fine
a pinch dried hot red pepper flakes, or to taste
2-4 tuna steaks, depending on how many you’re feeding

Directions:

Combine everything except for fish in a baking dish. Whisk to combine. Place fish in marinade and let sit at room temp if you’re marinating for less than an hour, in the fridge if you’re marinating over one hour and bring to room temp when you have about an hour left. The reason for this is so your fish won’t be cold in the center when seared. Marinate fish for up to 2 hours total.

Remove fish from marinade and pat dry. Place marinade in a small saucepan and bring to a boil and let cook for a few minutes. Heat a couple tablespoons of oil in a saute pan over medium high heat. Sear fish about 1 minute per side for rare tuna.

Spoon a bit of boiled marinade over tuna before serving.

Yield: 2-4 servings, depending how many steaks you cook

Before we get started on the tuna let’s talk about my absence from blogging the last couple weeks. My husband just graduated from law school in Birmingham, Alabama and will be practicing in Charlotte, North Carolina. Moving has been a gigantic pain but we’re so excited to finally be in Charlotte and getting settled in our new place. Unfortunately, with all the business of moving and starting a new job, there just hasn’t been much time for blogging.

I’m happy to report that as of this week I’m back in the kitchen. I made a menu for the week  and took my weekly Sunday grocery trip for the first time in over a month. My new kitchen is considerably smaller than the old kitchen and we don’t have a dishwasher (gasp!) but I’m trying to embrace it and work with what we have. So if you have any tips to share on maximizing small kitchen space, I would love to hear them (seriously…you should see the tiny amount of counter space I have).

Now on the the tuna…last Tuesday was my birthday and we’d been in our new place for all of two days. Needless to say, we weren’t very unpacked. I was really sick of eating out so I tried to brainstorm a simple dinner that I could prepare quickly for my birthday dinner. Tuna is one of our favorites and I was looking to do something different than our usual tuna with wasabi aioli.  I remembered a good herbed tuna recipe that I tried in college from Bon Appetit and decided to make my own variation of it. I used some of my favorite herbs and it turned out to be a great summer dish.

Seared Tuna with Herbed Aioli
(Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit)

Ingredients:

2 tuna steaks (recommended sushi/sashimi grade)
4 tablespoons olive oil, divided (3 for marinade and 1 for pan)
Juice from 1/2 a lemon
2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped
1 tablespoons Italian flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I use reduced fat)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients from olive oil through garlic clove to create the marinade for the tuna. Place mayonnaise in a separate small bowl and stir in about 2 tablespoons of the marinade mixture to create the aioli.  Refrigerate.

Season tuna steaks with salt and pepper. Pour reserved marinade over the tuna and leave at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Preheat a saute pan over medium-high heat. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in pan and add fish. Cook for about 45 seconds per side for rare (you just want to get the sear and warm it a little). The inside should still be red.

Top with aioli and serve.

Yield: 2 servings

Try this recipe soon! We serve the tuna with stir fry veggies and sushi rice.

Seared Tuna with Wasabi Aoli
(Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit)

Ingredients:

2 tuna steaks
Soy sauce
1 tbsp olive oil (or sesame or canola oil)
1 tbsp wasabi powder (can be found in the Asian section of grocery store)
1 tbsp water
1/4 cup mayonnaise (I always use light)

Directions:

Place tuna steaks in a dish and pour a couple tablespoons of soy sauce over them. Let marinate for about 30 minutes at room temperature, turning once.

Mix together wasabi powder and water and then whisk in mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Pat tuna dry. Heat a medium skillet to medium-high. Heat oil. Sear tuna steaks for about 45 seconds per side for rare.

Serve with wasabi aoli.

Yield: 2 servings

Sushi is one of the things that Brandon and I go out to dinner for the most. It was never something I was really interested in making at home (mostly because I was intimidated by it) but Brandon kept bringing up wanting to get a sushi kit. Lucky for us, we received a sushi set for Christmas from my sister-in-law’s boyfriend, Stephen. The set is from Crate and Barrel and came with everything you need to get started with making your own sushi – including really cute serving dishes.

We decided to stay in tonight and make sushi. We planned out our menu and made:

- Tuna nigiri
- Smoked salmon nigiri
- Tuna avocado roll
- Bagel roll
- Tuna roll with spicy mayo

All in all, I was really impressed by how well everything turned out. While it wasn’t exactly on par with our favorite sushi restaurant, it was really tasty and a great alternative to going out.

For this post I’m just going to post photos. I just don’t feel like I have a clear enough grasp yet on rolling the perfect sushi roll to walk you guys through it step-by-step but hopefully I’ll get there one day.

I encourage you to try sushi at home if it’s something you’ve thought about doing. It was a fun activity for us to do together – very hands on. My biggest tip would be to make sure that you have really good quality fish (you don’t need as much as you think!) and buy sushi rice and follow the directions very closely. There are tons of online guides for rolling your own sushi and the instructions are probably far better than anything you’d get from me at this point. We used a Sushi book and the Cooking Light cookbook as guides tonight.

And I had to include this last picture of Brandon enjoying his feast!