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Catalan Tuna Daube?


helenas

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Patricia Wells has a recipe for tuna daube in her Provence book. 2 inch tuna steaks seared over high heat for 2 minutes on each side and then braised covered in 350F oven in soffrito/wine/tomato mixture for an hour until "tuna is very tender". I have no reason not to trust Wells, but i still have doubts. Will this long period dry out tuna or braising liquid helps to keep it moist :unsure: ?

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Hm.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Patricia Wells has a recipe for tuna daube in her Provence book. 2 inch tuna steaks seared over high heat for 2 minutes on each side and then braised covered in 350F oven in soffrito/wine/tomato mixture for an hour until "tuna is very tender". I have no reason not to trust Wells, but i still have doubts. Will this long period dry out tuna or braising liquid helps to keep it moist :unsure: ?

Actually, it works PERFECTLY. Just make sure you get ALL of the dust out of your Easy Bake Oven.

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It's clear this is not going to produce the rare tuna so in vogue these days. I suspect this is an old recipe. Fashions change. Preparations that were once considered proper may still be enjoyed if you can adjust your mindset. I've had canned tuna that was anything but dried out. We may even forget that a correct tuna salade nicoise is made with canned tuna, now that hip chefs have started to offer an "updated" version with seared tuna. I'll bet that tuna braised in a medium oven will not get dried out. (I'd use a sheet of parchment paper over the food in the covered pot.) Whether you, or your guests, will like it or consider it over cooked is something you may know better than I. By the way, after a few weeks in Spain and having tuna in salads with olive oil and roasted peppers and as a filling for empanadas, I've come to have greater interest in, and appreciation for, well done and canned tuna.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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Bux, that's just it. There are some excellent-oil packed tunas. Now, I'll tend to use frozen ahi even to make tuna salad.

But doing this to two inch thick tuna steaks seems... :sad:

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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I can't remember now what cookbook I read it in, but the author made the comment that although seared (rare inside) tuna is all the rage in most of the world, the people of either France or Italy (can't remember which country either) prefer their tuna completely cooked through.

It always seems like a waste of tuna to me...............

but you never know until you try it.

If you make it, let us know!

Kristin Wagner, aka "torakris"

 

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Even searing very good tuna is... :sad:

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Hmmm... I have this book and I am going to try this.

Confession time... I HATE raw fish. I HATE half cooked fish. Tuna included. AND... I have had the very best of the belly meat after a 500 pounder flopped its last flop 15 minutes before it was expertly prepared by the first mate. Same with smaller ones... Bluefin, Yellowfin, you name it. I just don't get it.

Really fresh Dorado (Mahi-Mahi), 10 minutes dead, does make the most sublime ceviche. But then, that really isn't raw.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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fifi, it's kind of like with strip loin. It is best black and blue (charred but raw inside). One could like it well-done and grey and that's fine. But then why not use a different cut? It's the same with very good tuna. It's best raw. It's good seared. If one doesn't like that, perhaps a different cut would be best.

Ceviche isn't raw but it's good.

And inexpensive cuts of tuna, well-done, are great for French and Italian styled dishes.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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By the way, after a few weeks in Spain and having tuna in salads with olive oil and roasted peppers and as a filling for empanadas, I've come to have greater interest in, and appreciation for, well done and canned tuna.

Yep, and as Jinmyo mentioned, it's possible to find oil-packed canned tuna of very high quality. Lately, I've been seriously enjoying a Spanish product I found on igourmet.com: white tuna in olive oil with pequillo peppers. Oh, my . . . :blush:

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And inexpensive cuts of tuna, well-done, are great for French and Italian styled dishes.

Can one call salmon an inexpensive cut of tuna? :biggrin:

If it's cut from near the tail, yes.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Jin... I have to disagree. That beautiful, 10 minute dead, tuna had some of what the others were eating raw, cut off of it, taken to the galley (this was a 65 foot boat) and poached in olive oil. I have never yet tasted anything like that. Prime whatever makes prime cooked as well as raw. It was NOT wasted by cooking it. Some of us who were there still dream about it. (We even call the tuna "Charlie" when discussing it.)

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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The first time I had a rare duck breast I couldn't imagine ever eating roast duck again. It seemed criminal to cook a duck breast any other way than rare, but I've been with others in Chinatown who wanted roast duck and to tell the truth, I enjoyed my share. I love raw tuna, but I don't rule out someone serving me well done tuna and my enjoying it, although I am not likely to ever do more than sear it myself.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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Once when I was in school, we made a recipe like that for braised tuna. I believe It was the Italian's that eat the tuna fully cooked. The texture is completely different than what you are used to in a rare tuna steak. But it does remain juicy, although firm.

Worth trying at least.

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It won't be dried out. It will be suberb. Anything braised that long will be pretty good if you understand what braising's about I think. There's a Basque tuna stew called Marmitako that I love-- it has red pepper, potato, tomato, and tuna cooked through. Really good stuff, provided your sequencing's right.

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