weeknight dinner: ahi tuna

Ahi is expensive, but extraordinarily easy to prepare. It also can produce leftovers for lunch salads, giving it real bang for the buck. ADDITIONALLY, if you are making ramen, you can create the soup base at the same time by microplaning some additional ginger. Nothing like doubling up on prep.

Here is a simple recipe:

For the marinade:

1 tbsp lime juice
1 inch ginger, sliced into rounds
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame seed oil

Mix the marinade ahead of time, allow to blend.

Marinade tuna steaks 15 minutes before cooking. Do not marinate longer than 15 minutes.

toast some sesame seeds. Shake them into a single layer on a small plate.

After marinating for fifteen minutes and preparing the vegetables, sear the tuna steaks on very high heat, in an oil that won't smoke like there is no tomorrow. I've tried olive oil (bad) and sesame seed oil (not much better), so now I'm going to try peanut oil or, probably better, grapeseed oil.

Sear for about 1 minute a side. Finish with a torch if necessary, but it shouldn't be.

Set the tuna steaks, one at a time, in the sesame seeds, to give it a crust. Thinly slice the steaks with a sharp sharp knife.

Possible sides:

sushi rice or steamed cauliflower or some kind of starchy vegetable
asparagus or broccoli fried with ginger and garlic. Blistered okra!

Weeknight Ramen

Ramen ought to be an easy meal. I'm not there yet. Here is where I am so far.




STEP 1: THE BROTH

2 quarts water
2 strips kelp
1/2 cup bonita flakes

Simmer the kelp in the water for ten minutes, then add the bonita flakes, simmer another five. Strain out the kelp and bonita flakes. Turn off heat and over.

STEP 2: PROTEINS

I used a sous vide preparation for soft boiled eggs at six minutes, 194 degrees followed by an iced water bath. Then I cracked the eggs and dunked them in warm water and peeled. It was a disaster. The eggs were almost formless. NEXT TIME: cook a touch longer then let them rest at room temperature.

UPDATE: skip the ice bath, and it works really, really well. Eggs were a little too firm, if anything, so maybe a warm water bath?

STEP 3: THE SOUP BASE

the base

2 tsp microplaned ginger
3 tsp microplaned garlic
2 tsp sesame seed oil
3 tbsp soy sauce (low sodium, as it happens)
2 tbsp mirin




Add the base to the broth and heat on low.
Then add: Shitake mushrooms

This is our broth.


STEP 4: FINISHING

Cook noodles (we tried cooking them in the broth and it predictably ate up lots of the broth.)

We added greens to make it a one pot meal.