Food For Thought

So I said in my first entry that I really love to cook, so I thought I'd share a recipe with you that I made for dinner the other night, and felt turned out exceptionally well!

Seared Sesame Crusted Tuna with a Baby Arugala and Spinach Salad.

I don't do recipes very well because to be quite honest, I just don't follow measurements, I just add what looks good to me, so we'll see how this goes.

Go to your local grocery store and pick up a couple Ahi Tuna loin steaks (about 1 inch thick) from the seafood section, pick up as many as you need, but I'll tell you know it won't be cheap, it's about $20/pound and for 5 generous portions the tuna alone came to about $42 (still cheaper than what you would pay for this in a restaurant)
You will also need:
Sesame seeds (white or black, whichever you prefer, for this I used white because I couldn't find any black)
Garlic, about 2-4 cloves depending on your tastes
Sesame Oil
Olive Oil
Lime Juice (I recommend just picking up a bottle of the "real lime" because limes are rediculous to get a significant amount of juice out of)
Ginger, I discovered at the grocery store frozen pre-measured, pre-grated cubes of ginger, so wonderful, but if you can only find fresh, that's ok too.
Salt and Pepper
Japanese Soy Sauce (Kikomen brand is the kind I usually get)
Baby Arugala
Baby Spinich
Baby Onion Sprouts
Alfalfa Sprouts
Wasabi

Alright now for the directions:

For the Salad Dressing:
Mince the garlic and add it to a bowl
Add in about 4 tbsp of sesame oil
5 tbsp lime juice
2 tbsp grated ginger
half a cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Mix together in a bowl, and set aside to pour onto the salad later.

The salad itself is as simple as mixing together equal parts spinich and arugala, a healthy chunk or alfalfa sprouts, make sure to separate it or else it will just stay in one big mass, and about half the amount of onion sprouts that you put in of alfalfa sprouts. Mix these all together, but don't put the dressing on until you're ready to serve, or else it will wilt the greens.

For the Tuna:
First fill a tupperware container with about 1 1/2 cups of Sesame Seeds, and another one with about 1 cup of soy sauce. Put the tuna loin into the soy sauce and let soak on each side for a couple minutes so it absorbs the flavour
then lay them out on a cutting board or plate
grab your wasabi and give them a generous coating, a: don't worry this actually doesn't make them rediculously spicey or anything, you can just subtly taste it once it's cooked. b: if you have any cuts on your hand I would recommend a rubber glove, as I learned the other day when I made this from a tiny sliver of skin that had peeled up beside my nail (you all know what I mean) it stings like hell if you get wasabi into it!
After you have them coated in wasabi, shake just a little bit of salt and pepper onto each side, then it's time to move them into the sesame seeds, roll it, shake it, do a little dance with it if you'd like, just make sure you get the whole piece of tuna coated in seeds.
Heat up a frying pan on medium-high with the bottom covered in olive oil, I can't give an exact measurement because I really don't know how big your frying pan is, for mine it was about a quarter cup.
Once it's heated up ( i always tell by flicking a bit of water off of my fingers, and when it sizzles it's ready) Place a couple steaks at a time into the pan and sear them for 1 minute per side. Remember, this is just to sear the outside, the tuna will still be practically raw in the middle.
Remove them and place them onto a cutting board, and with your sharpest knife, and against the grain of the fish (the little lines that go through the flesh) cut it into slices about 1/4-1/2 inch thick, lay them out on your plate along side the salad.

At this point you can dress the salad, even feel free to drizzle a little bit of the dressing on the tuna.

Now let me address your fear, I'm sure you're thinking, but the fish is raw in the middle, this fish is perfectly fine to eat raw, I've eaten Tuna sushi many times, even when I'm preparing it I like to dip a little piece in the soy sauce and munch down while I'm preparing the rest. I've made this dish a few times now for many different people, and no one has gotten sick yet. So give it a try at your next little dinner party, impress those guests, or even just that special someone, it's so much simpler than it seems, and it's definitely rewarding in the end! I even have friends who really don't like fish that love this meal, because it's not fully cooked, it doesn't get very fishy at all. If you have any questions about it please feel free to ask because I'm sure I missed a step somewhere, this is my first recipe I've ever posted. Happy Eating!