Friday, July 25, 2008

Tuna? Tuna

We had this for dinner tonight. I don't care for fish, but this was actually not that bad. The spicy mustard helped.

Grilled Cajun Tuna Steaks with a Mustard Smear and Tomato Salad

4 tuna Steaks (or any grillable fish),3/4 -1" thick
Cajun seasoning for meat or fish (I use either one)
Olive oil spray
2 tsp of mustard (Choose your favorite,Grey Poupon, horseradish mustard, or my favorite - hot mustard, or other)
4 handfuls of salad greens
2 large, ripe tomatoes cut into slices
Olive oil for drizzling
1 Tbl of balsamic vinegar
Optional: blackberries (or other berries) for color and variety

Spray both sides of the tuna steaks, liberally, with olive oil spray.
Dust them with the Cajun seasoning to taste.
Set aside so the flavors sink in.

While the flavors meld, take out your dinner plates.
In a medium bowl, toss your greens with a light drizzle of olive oil and just a hint of salt.
(The salt actually enhances the flavor of the olive oil and greens).
Place a portion of greens in the middle of each plate.
Divide your tomato slices into 4 portions and fan them around one side of the greens.
Spread them wide to cover half of the plate edge.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Season with pepper and drizzle bits of balsamic vinegar on the tomatoes.

Heat your grill or grill pan.
Place the tuna steaks on the grate and grill on medium for 3 minutes. Don't move them. This will give you nice grill marks.
Carefully flip them over and grill 3 more minutes. This will finish the fish at medium.
If you like your tuna more rare in the middle cut back the cooking time when you flip the fish over. The gauge I use is 7 minutes per inch of thickness to grill fish to medium. Just keep in mind that it keeps cooking after you take it off the heat.
Remove the fish from the grill and place the fish steaks in the middle of the greens.
The hot fish will "wilt" the greens and make a nice warm salad.
While the fish is still very warm smear a half teaspoon of mustard across the top of each piece.
The mustard will melt and make a sort of glaze.

Scatter your berries around the greens and you're ready to eat.
For another side, spray olive oil on asparagus spears and grill them along with your fish.
You'll have a gourmet meal fit for company.

2 comments:

Lone Chatelaine said...

So you did it! And you liked it! Cool! I love spicy mustard on things too. I might even like tuna if I try it this way.

Cerulean Bill said...

We used a sort of spicy honey mustard on it, and I found that the more, the merrier. So if (and likely when) we do it again, we'll go for a hot mustard.