At Ubin restaurant in Costa Rica we enjoyed tuna that had been seared with fennel seed and coriander seed. I really liked this combination and wanted to try it at home. The photo was made with my phone in bad … Continue reading Seared Tuna with Coriander Seed and Fennel Seed
Tuna is locally caught along the Algarve in Southern Portugal, and so the local cuisine also includes recipes for tuna. Cebolada de atum is one of the most common dishes. The name “cebolada” refers to the onions in the dish and … Continue reading Cebolada de Atum (Tuna with Onions and Bell Peppers)
This appetizer was inspired by something we had at Taverna Estia** near Naples in Italy. Deep fried mozzarella is a common appetizer, but here it is enriched in two ways. First, by including tuna in the filling. Second, by using … Continue reading Deep Fried Mozzarella and Tuna with Almonds
Still more recipes to go from the memories of our trip to Southern Italy last year. We had dinner at Già sotto l’arco* in Puglia and the dish I remember the best was squid ink tortelli filled with tuna and … Continue reading Tuna Ravioli (Ravioli al Tonno)
We are back home from our trip to the coast of Southern Italy, and I have compiled a list of over 40 dishes that we tried during our trip and that I would like to recreate at home. This first … Continue reading Troccoli al Tonno Fresco (Fresh Pasta with Fresh Tuna, Tomatoes, and Mint)
When you make crème brûlée, you will have a lot of leftover egg whites. On the master of cook I saw this recipe for a ‘pizza’ made from egg whites with a tomato sauce and tuna. In Italian it is … Continue reading Egg White ‘Pizza’ With Tuna
Sometimes I use ‘transitivity’ to come up with new dishes. A relationship between two objects is transitive if whenever an object A is related to an object B, and B is in turn related to an object C, then A is also related to … Continue reading Tuna and Carrots with Cumin
Vitello tonnato is one of my favorite dishes. The combination of slices of tender veal with a tuna sauce is surprisingly delicious. I’ve posted a sous-vide version of Vitello Tonnato before, but in that version only the veal was cooked … Continue reading Vitello Tonnato Extremely Sous-Vide
Recently we were on vacation in Cabo Verde, an archipelago off the coast of Senegal where the sun always shines. We were there for the weather, 25ºC/77ºF and sunny, not the food. There is an abundance of fresh fish, obviously, … Continue reading Seared Tuna: to Sous-Vide or Not to Sous-Vide
I used my first homemade corn tortillas to make tuna tacos. Tacos are stuffed tortillas (either wheat or corn). Tuna tacos are not very traditional, but they sure are delicious. I stuffed the tacos with ancho seared tuna, pico de … Continue reading Tuna Tacos
Canned tuna is cheap, but often of inferior quality. The tuna is dry and tastes mostly of salt. I have found good quality ‘organic’ canned tuna from the Ortiz brand, but that is more expensive than sashimi grade fresh tuna. So when I read about tuna cooked sous-vide with olive oil at 71ºC/160ºF for an hour as a tasty alternative for canned tuna on SVKitchen.com, my interest was piqued and I decided to give this a try. As the tuna will be pasteurized with this cooking time and temperature, it is perfectly fine to use frozen tuna for this that is a lot cheaper than sushi grade fresh tuna. Continue reading “Tuna Confit Sous-Vide”
Teun came over to cook together for the first time again after my trip to Australia, and we created this appetizer together. This use of runner beans was inspired by snow peas that looked like seaweed at Vermeer. The combination of the raw tuna with the crispy runner beans and the spicy dressing works really well. Continue reading “Tuna Tartare with Runner Bean ‘Seaweed’”
We eat most fish on Fridays and Saturdays, since I prefer to eat fish on the day that I bought it. The well-known Albert Cuyp market in Amsterdam is just a few blocks from the office, and I should take more advantage of that to go there and get fish during my lunch break so we can have fish on other days of the week as well as we both love fish.
When I was on the Albert Cuyp market I saw some nice tuna and thought it was time I would give ‘poke’ a try. Poke is a Hawaiian dish that I had never heard of before, despite having been to Hawaii for a week two years ago. I had noticed it on Richard McGary’s blog REMCooks.com before, but only when I saw the photo of the Baby Lady smugly enjoying poke I knew I really had to try this 🙂 I was not disappointed, as we both loved it and I will definitely make poke again.
Poke is a Hawaiian dish made with raw tuna (called ahi in Hawaii, either big eye tuna or yellowfin tuna) and a variety of other ingredients. I based my first attempt upon Richard’s post about Pesto Poke, but I added some avocado as well and replaced the cilantro with parsley. Continue reading “My First Poke”
This is how I dipped my toes in the world of chiles after receiving Richard’s package. The three jars seemed a little less daunting than those different kinds of dried chile peppers that I had never heard of before. I had browsed a lot of chile recipes on Richard’s blog REMCooks.com for inspiration. It wasn’t needed to search or filter on the blog, because there are chiles everywhere 😉 And so I made up this dish, to get to know the heat and flavor of the first three items in the package. It turned out great, I absolutely loved it. The ancho chile rub is not very hot but does impart a lot of flavor and it pairs really well with tuna. The jalapeños en escabeche paired well with the zucchini, and the salsa with pickled chipotles was quite hot but very nice. Not bad for a first experiment. It gave me the courage to proceed with the rest. I can highly recommend Richard’s recipes for all three of the condiments (links below). Here’s what I did… Continue reading “Ancho Chile Crusted Tuna, Tomato Salsa with Pickled Chipotles, and Zucchini with Pickled Jalapeños”
Yet another meal and another post inspired by fellow bloggers, two in this case. The idea to try tuna sous-vide came from A Single Serving, who left a comment on my sous-vide page. He mentioned tuna confit, which is not what I tried this time around (but I will). Instead, I cooked the tuna medium rare at 42C/108F. The idea to grill avocado came from Richard of REMCooks, as well as the idea to combine avocado and tuna. I made this for lunch, but it could also be a nice appetizer for two. If you don’t have sous-vide equipment, you could use a ziploc bag and stock pot as a good substitute (that will however require some attention to monitor the temperature) or simply serve the tuna raw.
You may now be thinking that I lost it. Grilling avocado? I had never thought of this, but I trust Richard and he’s right: it’s nice and a great way to eat an avocado that is not yet fully ripe. I was worried the avocado would ‘melt’, but that is not the case at all. The sous-vide tuna turned out very nice, with more flavor than rare tuna. I really liked the combination of flavors and textures, and the chile flakes made a big difference in this dish. Here’s what I did… Continue reading “Grilled Avocado with Tuna Sous-Vide”
I have almost two weeks off from work, which gives me more time than usual to experiment. About a month ago we had a dish at Lasarte in Barcelona that I really liked: spicy shrimp trackers with tuna tartare. The combination of the spicy crispy shrimp with the tuna worked very well, so I wanted to try something similar. I was quite happy with the result, the only thing I would like to improve is the crispiness of the crackers. Do you think you have an idea to make them more crispy? Please leave a comment! Update January 11, 2013: … Continue reading Spicy Shrimp Crackers with Tuna Tartare
If you’ve never had vitello tonnato before, you probably think veal and tuna are an unlikely pair. But in fact this classic dish from the Piemonte region in Italy (called vitel tonnà in the Piemontese language) is a great combination. Traditionally, vitello tonnato is made by poaching the “girello” cut of “Fassone” veal (a prized Piemontese breed of veal) in a stock with aromatic vegetables and white wine, sliced thinly and served with a sauce of canned tuna, hard-boiled eggs, capers, anchovies, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, and a bit of the cooking liquid. Girello (also known as tondino … Continue reading Amazing Sous-Vide Vitello Tonnato
This is my “go to” recipe for un unplanned but tasty and healthy meal, as all the ingredients have a very long shelf life (so I usually have them available) and it doesn’t matter to leave out some of the ingredients. The only things you really need are spaghetti, a can of tuna, a can of peeled tomatoes, salt and olive oil. The taste will be more complex if you do use all the optional ingredients, but it will still taste fine without them or with just a few of them. Another advantage of this dish is that it takes … Continue reading Spaghetti with Tuna (Spaghetti al Tonno)
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