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Yellowfin tuna chunk in need of inspiration


heidih

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My neighbor just returned from Cabo San Lucas in Baja, Mexico and gifted me with this chunk of yellowfin tuna he caught. It went swiftly from the boat as a whole fish to one of the two "processing centers" and was butchered and cryovacd immediately, frozen and then transported home well frozen. All that to say it went from fresh to frozen in a good way and the freeze was maintained until I received it.

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I want to try perhaps three different preps with it. Nobody that will be available soon to eat it is enthralled with tuna. I have worked with tuna from Baja before but only to marinate and grill for large parties.

I have looked at our two topics on the subject:

I have never prepped my own tuna to eat in a raw state but would like to. Once I thaw the chunk I think it needs to be eaten within a day or so. I was thinking a ceviche with about a third of it, grilled with the center cut, and a tartare with the rest. It is still frozen solid so I have time but am anxious to taste it.

All input and suggestions are welcome.

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I caught my first yellowfin in 1968 and have caught, processed and cooked thousands of pounds since then.

In the 90's I fished with a few buddies for three weeks off the coast of Baja. We were actually fishing for everything other than yellowfin since they were always available. We'd put up two or three large fish per day for afternoon snacks and canning.

We decided one evening to taste test tuna by age. We had fresh, one day, two day, three day and four day. As straight sashimi the three day stuff was the overwhelming winner. Each piece was the upper side of the belly after bleeding on a 70-80 pound fish.

The trick is in how you prepare the trim pieces. There will be some very usable "mushy" meat on the outside. It spices up real nice as an Ahi slider. A nice piece chared with a seasame/wasibi crust can be sliced over a nice avacado/cilantro/mango salad. Spicy tuna roll and make sure the best becomes sashimi.

Edited by StanSherman (log)
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I was told the fish was probably a 40 pounder. When I look at it from the nose to tail angle it is a solid piece; no side bits. It I had to pull a word out it would be "loin". Not a lot of striations.

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Sashimi with a nice ponzu.

Roll it in sesame seeds and sear the tuna on a rocket engine.

Tuna tartar with some minced ginger and green onions and a little sesame, served on Japanese soup spoons.

There's a nice tuna 3-way. Pretty common stuff, though. Don't know if your guests will roll their eyes and say "ho hum" for something like that.

Who cares how time advances? I am drinking ale today. -- Edgar Allan Poe

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Sashimi with a nice ponzu.

Roll it in sesame seeds and sear the tuna on a rocket engine.

Tuna tartar with some minced ginger and green onions and a little sesame, served on Japanese soup spoons.

There's a nice tuna 3-way. Pretty common stuff, though. Don't know if your guests will roll their eyes and say "ho hum" for something like that.

What I was trying to say was that this was all for me to eat within a short time frame as nobody I know that will appreciate it is available soon. I was going to indulge myself with this small chunk done perhaps stretched out over a few days in various ways. Good ideas though.

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Also, if you try making maguro zuke (marinating the tuna in soy and mirin after an optional quick dunk in boiling water) you can keep it for another few days before eating. It's a light preserve.

Thanks - I like that idea. I want to honor the freshness as much as possible and at the same time explore preps I have never done.

I am assuming that another week in the freezer which has a steady temp won't affect the texture. I want to be able to devote both time and appetite to the tuna once I thaw it.

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You can see the butchering process here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl826IL2k4g

... but you will be familiar enough with the meat itself to recognise the paler, more opaque fatty belly meat (the sea's answer to crack cocaine).

I'd be tempted to tandoori some of it (the fish in general, not the belly meat). Marinade:

1/3 cup vinega, or better, lemon juice

1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

4 garlic cloves

Salt to taste

1 tbsp ground coriander seeds

1 tbsp ground cumin seeds

minced fresh chilli pepper to taste

1/2 cup oil

For 30 minutes - 4 hours.

Roast on a rack as quickly as you can (10 - 15 minutes ?) in a very hot oven, turning once - use the meat cut into equal-size chunks of 1-2 inches on each side, or in a piece of fairly uniform thickness.

I'm hoping Dakki will say something about his seafood ceviche.

QUIET!  People are trying to pontificate.

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Small cubes, salt the snot out of them and then into the fridge in a marinade of 10-12 limes (juiced), 3-4 aji peppers (diced), a dash of crushed garlic, and one tomato (juiced), until the fish becomes completely opaque. Then pull that out, drain, and put in fresh lime-tomato-aji juice with a finely sliced red onion, two cubed fresh tomatoes, and a single aji pepper (diced.) Fresh cilantro on top. Yum yum tuna ceviche! Serve with fresh popcorn and chifles (green plantain chips).

You can do this without the aji peppers for a much milder dish; I however think that to remove them entirely is sacrilege. You can also keep the original "cooking" liquid, but I don't like how fishy it ends up tasting. The whole thing should be done in a nonreactive dish like pyrex or glass; other materials mess with the flavour.

On the other hand, larger cubes rolled in panela-soy-tamarind-wasabi mix and then pan-seared is also very tasty.

Edit - a good spellar is me! Also, forgot to talk about reactive vs nonreactive ceviche dishes.

Edited by Panaderia Canadiense (log)

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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One way I like to do tuna is to pan sear it with salt and pepper and serve it with a highly flavored tomato sauce. The tuna really stands up to the sauce.

For the sauce:

Olive oil

diced garlic

diced onion

chopped black olives

chopped anchovy

Diced canned or fresh tomatoes (if using fresh, squeeze out the excess juice and seeds)

lemon juice

I don't have exact measures for the ingredients, you're looking for balance between the flavors.

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This Tuna was hanging out in Baja... I think it would like to be treated to some classic Baja preps

Tostada de Atun (tuna sashimi & avocado slices mounted on a tostada with topped with crispy onion & garlic)

http://eatyourworld.com/destinations/mexico/mexico-city/what-to-eat/tostada

Toritos de Atun (Roasted Chile Guero stuffed with mushy raw tuna, fried tempura style, served in a brothy blend of Soy Sauce, Key Lime, Green Onion & thin sliced Serrano chiles)

http://www.streetgourmetla.com/2010/05/cebicheria-erizo-tijuanabc-top-ceviche.html

Biztec de Atun

A simple mezquite grilled tuna steak served with some nopalitos & a chiltepin salsa

Bistec de atún a la parilla con queso fresco (Grilled tuna filet) (MXP $150)

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I've made this dish of seared tuna, & it was well-liked: Prepare a salad of arugula, cukes, and radishes. Make a shallot vinaigrette of olive oil, champagne vinegar, minced shallots, S&P. Dress the salad with some of the vinaigrette, and reserve the rest. In a hot pan with olive oil, sear a thick steak of the tuna on both sides; then slice thinly. Arrange the tuna slices on the salad. Spoon the reserved vinaigrette on the tuna. Garnish with chopped, oil-cured olives.

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Thank you all for your suggestions. (fried my laptop so have been out of touch) To clarify - the tuna has remained frozen. I will not take it out until my menu is complete and ready to execute.

Broken English - the tartare with mint, apple and chives appeals as they are a flavor combo I enjoy and all three ingredients are flavorful and fresh in my garden right now.

Panaderia Canadiense - a ceviche will certainly happen as I have some nice ripe limes on my tree and I like the sound of yours. I have cayenne, habanero and a very small medium heat with a bit of fruit (tag lost) ripe now. Can you give me an idea of the taste of an aji pepper within that spectrum? Also, when you refer to popcorn - do you mean the popped stuff we Americans scarf down in movie theatres or something more crunchy? I have never done green plantains but they are readily available.

EatNopales - yes I like the concept of honoring the tuna's swimming grounds in Baja. As soon as I saw it I was thinking of a pairing with avocado and that tostada would fit the bill nicely. The crunchy onion topping sounds good - I am a big fan of contrast in flavor and texture. A simple grilled preparation will also be on the short list. I may have to research nopales and forage some as they are abundant in my local fields and canyons. Love a challenge.

I probably will not be able to execute the tuna extravaganza until later next week and will update you on my menu.

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Thank you all for your suggestions. (fried my laptop so have been out of touch) To clarify - the tuna has remained frozen. I will not take it out until my menu is complete and ready to execute.

heidih; one last idea for you. A Yotam Ottolenghi recipe incidentally just posted today - I think it sounds lovely, but would cook them only enough to seal.

(bottom of page)

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RRO - thanks for the link. I am looking at doing the whole chunk within a 3 day max period so a combination of raw and cooked preps is what I am looking for. The Ottolenghi recipe appeals - I think I would just use egg white to bind and omit the yolk to keep the tuna in front, just sear as you noted, and I actually like the general idea of that fig and sweet potato dish as a side. I would use the ripe figs I can sneak across the fence, local butternut squash, and use my sweet yet pungent sage as the herb.

I am also thinking of a few slices in a quick gravlax cure like you did in your blog with the traditional salmon. Going to research.

I need to do a spreadsheet! Looking forward to this feast in perhaps a week.

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Panaderia Canadiense - a ceviche will certainly happen as I have some nice ripe limes on my tree and I like the sound of yours. I have cayenne, habanero and a very small medium heat with a bit of fruit (tag lost) ripe now. Can you give me an idea of the taste of an aji pepper within that spectrum? Also, when you refer to popcorn - do you mean the popped stuff we Americans scarf down in movie theatres or something more crunchy? I have never done green plantains but they are readily available.

Aji peppers are somewhere between your small medium heat and the cayennes.

I mean popcorn in the sense of taking kernels and popping them in a heavy-bottomed pot with a bit of oil and then salting the result lightly. The moviegoing stuff isn't popcorn, IMHO. It's an excuse for butterlike topping. Blech.

Green plantains, peeled (under flowing water) and then shaved with a veggie peeler into hot shallow oil is the method for good chifles.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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Panaderia Canadiense - a ceviche will certainly happen as I have some nice ripe limes on my tree and I like the sound of yours. I have cayenne, habanero and a very small medium heat with a bit of fruit (tag lost) ripe now. Can you give me an idea of the taste of an aji pepper within that spectrum? Also, when you refer to popcorn - do you mean the popped stuff we Americans scarf down in movie theatres or something more crunchy? I have never done green plantains but they are readily available.

Aji peppers are somewhere between your small medium heat and the cayennes.

I mean popcorn in the sense of taking kernels and popping them in a heavy-bottomed pot with a bit of oil and then salting the result lightly. The moviegoing stuff isn't popcorn, IMHO. It's an excuse for butterlike topping. Blech.

Green plantains, peeled (under flowing water) and then shaved with a veggie peeler into hot shallow oil is the method for good chifles.

So still what we know as popcorn but done with good kernels in oil -and the result is a fully exploded kernel with taste and texture?

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That's exactly it. Hot air popping doesn't cut it in this case - hot metal over flame is the way to go. You get a slightly crisper final product and the flavour of the oil enters the kernels ever so slightly, which I find to be very pleasant. I use EVOO for this, because you only really need about 1/2 oz of it and with a bit of sea salt it's just nummy.

Elizabeth Campbell, baking 10,000 feet up at 1° South latitude.

My eG Food Blog (2011)My eG Foodblog (2012)

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Broken English - the tartare with mint, apple and chives appeals as they are a flavor combo I enjoy and all three ingredients are flavorful and fresh in my garden right now.

Thanks. It's a really nice dish, I had it on the menu at my last job a hell of a lot (although with Wahoo and Kingfish a lot of the time), and it works so well with the white gazpacho.

James.

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I took the plunge and set my tuna in the fridge last night to defrost. Inspired by the Tostada de Atun that EatNopales linked to above I prepared a simple tostada for breakfast.

I crisped a very corny tortilla (Trader Joe house brand) in a 350 oven rather than frying to keep the flavors clear and fresh. In the same vein I mashed the avocado and used that for the creamy base rather than mayo. This is a very small avocado from an old tree in the neighborhood - the dropped fruit is all over the sidewalk so I rescue a few when I walk. The flesh is less creamy than a Hass with a vibrant green color and a slight but pleasant grassy undertone. I kept the spicy salsa to one side and tasted the naked end first. The only raw tuna I have ever had was in ceviche or mixed in a fine dice with other items in a sushi roll so this was all new to me. My first thought was "smooth & buttery". I can't really describe the taste well - a very faint marine note, but it was really all about texture. The crunch of the tostada was a nice contrast, but it think it may have been an overwhelming taste for the delicate raw fish. I was pleased with my first round. More to come later today.

DSCN1202.JPG

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I took the plunge and set my tuna in the fridge last night to defrost. Inspired by the Tostada de Atun that EatNopales linked to above I prepared a simple tostada for breakfast.

I crisped a very corny tortilla (Trader Joe house brand) in a 350 oven rather than frying to keep the flavors clear and fresh. In the same vein I mashed the avocado and used that for the creamy base rather than mayo. This is a very small avocado from an old tree in the neighborhood - the dropped fruit is all over the sidewalk so I rescue a few when I walk. The flesh is less creamy than a Hass with a vibrant green color and a slight but pleasant grassy undertone. I kept the spicy salsa to one side and tasted the naked end first. The only raw tuna I have ever had was in ceviche or mixed in a fine dice with other items in a sushi roll so this was all new to me. My first thought was "smooth & buttery". I can't really describe the taste well - a very faint marine note, but it was really all about texture. The crunch of the tostada was a nice contrast, but it think it may have been an overwhelming taste for the delicate raw fish. I was pleased with my first round. More to come later today.

DSCN1202.JPG

Looking good! Please don't give up on the tostada.. but next time try a white corn tortilla with less assertive flavor. Also, your tuna slices are a bit finer than are used for the tostada prep.

Agreed tuna is basically sweet, buttery & a little hint of fresh ocean water. Texture & sweetness I think are the big appeal.

Edited by EatNopales (log)
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