Japanese Night

Or should I say Japonese Day! Some of my collegues and I had a pending date with the japanese restaurant close to work. Turned out that today was Sushi Day :) I had been craving sushi for a while now and in Madrid, good sushi at a good price can be hard to find. Spaniards are not too fond of Japanese food but they are getting used to it. This is one of the things I just miss about Montreal. Mmmmm Mikasa sushi!!! How I miss thou! Oh well, I usually resolve the issue by making my own sushi but it does feel satisfying once in a while to go and give yourself a treat :) So after some dumplings, tempura veggies and sushis and makis, my craving was subsized.

Then I remembered that I had thawed some tuna steaks :)! So Japanese Lunch turned into Japanese Day without even realizing it. I love tuna, raw or cooked. Tuna steaks are great for the meat lovers that believe fish is just "not good enough"; they actually have that meat texture and feeling. Perfect to get them acquainted with fish and realizing that is "not that bad". The trick to tuna is to marinade it with juice, oil or any type of sauce (experiment, you cannot go wrong here). Tuna steaks can be very dry and it is important to give it that oil or juice in order for the meat to be juicy. Another trick, do NOT cook it through. Tuna is made to be eaten raw, many will say. So if you grill it, grill it rare. Trust me, you won't regret it!

Tuna steaks can be served with anything. I like to serve it with noodles or rice to continue with the Asian feeling. Since I have some dehydrated shitakes, I decided to mix it with noodles and the other veggies I had on hand: leeks.

Soy Tuna Steaks with Shitake and Leek Noodles

Marinade

Ingredients:

2 tuna steaks
1 tbsp of soya sauce
1 tbsp of mirin (rice wine)
1 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of sesame oil
1 tsp of minced ginger

In a plastic bag or ziploc, mix all the marinade ingredients (soya, mirin, fish sauce, sesame oil and ginger). Add the tuna steaks making sure the marinade covers both side of each steak. If your steaks are on the larger side, double the marinade recipe. Let rest for 1 hour.

If you are adding any type of acid liquid to the marinade (lemon or orange juice), do not let the marinade sit for more than 30 mins. The acidity of the sauce will cook the tuna.


Soy Tuna Steaks with Shitake and Leek Noodles

Ingredients:

200gr of chinese egg noodles
200gr of shitake mushrooms (if dehydrate, add hot water)
1/2 leek
1 garlic clove
1 tsp of mince ginger
1 tbsp of mirin
1 tbsp of soya
1 tsp of coriander seeds
1 tsp of sesame oil
2 marinaded tuna steaks
2 tbsp of sesame seeds

Boil hot water in a pot for the noodles. When water is boiling, add the noodles and remove from heat. Let rest for about 4 mins and strain. Keep about 1 cup of cooking water to add to the sauce.

Dice the leek and mince the garlic. Add the sesame oil to the Wok and heat at high. When hot, add the shitake mushrooms and cook for a few mins. Add the leek and cook for 1 min.

 In the meantime, heat your grill at high and drizzle some sesame oil on it. Pour some sesame seeds into a small plate and rub the sides of the tuna steaks into the seeds (picture below shows the final result).

Add the garlic, ginger, soya and mirin to the veggies. Crush the coriander seeds with the side of your knife or in a mortier. Add to the mix.

Cook for a min and add the pasta and cooking water (it really makes a difference. The pasta tends to get sticky if the water is not added).

Grill both steaks for about 1 min (rare) or 2 mins (medium) on each side.

Serve the noodles on the plate and add the tuna steak. Dish is served!

My perfectly cooked tuna (I cooked mine rare and David's medium):

Japanese heaveness :)