The Bride and I had decided on Honey-Soy Ahi With Crisp Cucumber Salad on page 304. I stopped by the Hyde Park Fish Market because I had always been treated so well there. I told the monger that I needed two ahi tuna steaks, six ounces each and one and a half inches thick. As he was cutting them, he told me that if I wanted them to be six ounces, he would need to cut them thinner. Not thinking too much on the matter, I responded that I was more concerned with weight than thickness. All of my other cooking experience has been more focused on weight than volume, whether it's baking, roasting, braising, stewing, etc. This would come back to bite me in the butt...more on that later.
As I started the marinade, I began thinking about my decision at the Fish Market. Knowing that I would be grilling high and fast for only about a minute and a half per side, leaving the outside of the tuna steaks seared and the middle raw, thickness would be a primary concern, not weight. This would work better with a thicker steak. Thus, I should have gone with the one and a half inch thick steaks, regardless of weight. As I went to put the steaks in the ziploc bag with the marinade, I noticed another problem. The fish monger cut the steaks into drastically different thicknesses.
I hadn't counted on this, and didn't even bother checking while at the store. I was probably looking at something shiny instead. Again, it was my mistake for not checking, and will be a lesson learned. Looking at the steaks, it is also readily apparent that they are far too thin for what I wanted to do. At this point I was committed, so I proceeded anyway. I marinated them, and made the cucumber salad while I waited. I got The Forge to about 9,000 degrees, and seared them for about a minute and fifteen seconds per side.
Side note...I really wanted to try Alton Brown's method but for the sake of consistancy, I followed directions provided by Weber. Skip to the five minute mark to see what I am talking about.
Before I show the final plating, allow me to show you a tip I picked up as far as presentation is concerned. One trick the restaurant industry uses is to go "vertical" with the presentation. They use metal rings to stack layers of food, and then make it look pretty from there. I looked into the metal rings at various stores, but they were rediculously priced. Then I read Kitchen Confidental by Anthony Bourdain where he suggested using PVC pipe. So for about five bucks I was able to make six rings. Here I am using two of them.
From this point I stuffed the rings with the cucumber salad.
Then I placed the tuna steaks on top!
I liked this recipe. Next time it will be much better because I will make sure that all of the tuna steaks are of the proper thickness. The outsides were seared wonderfully, but the insides were a little too far from raw like they were supposed to be. The marinade is nice and imparts a great amount of flavor in only half an hour. The pairing of the cucumber salad makes the overall dish slightly spicy, tangy, sweet, and refreshing all at once. There is a nice variety of textures as well. I would like to give this recipe another try (with steaks of the correct thickness) before I give the final analysis.
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