I’ve got a couple of tuna steaks; am looking for a dazzling recipe to put them to good use. What can you suggest?
Here’s my pseudo-Japanese marinade for salmon steaks, which I’d guess would work for tuna:
-Tamari
-Sake
-umeboshi plum paste
-A little bit of powdered wasabi
-lots of fresh-grated ginger
It comes out sort of like eating cooked sushi. Yum!
If you want something more formal, check out Epicurious.com, with 43 different good-lookin tuna steak recipes drawn from Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines.
Daniel
Thanks. Your recipe sounds great. The Tuna Teriyaki with Wasabi butter and the Seared Tuna Pepper Steaks also sound great. I’ll probably have to make a trip up to the Japanese store (yeah, there’s one in my little suburb of Cincinnati, who’d a thunk it?) for any of these, I guess I can pick and choose. A couple of follow up questions for your recipe: 1) Accompaniments? and 2) What proportion of ingredients in the mix?
For my recipe, I really just do it by taste, so I can’t say really what the proportions are A dab of this, a dollop of that. Sorry! Just be aware that all the ingredients are really strongly flavored, especially the plum paste and the wasabi.
As for accompaniments, you could go for a nice japanese box meal, and serve it with brown (or white) rice, japanese pickles, and a green salad with a gingery dressing. Asparagus would probably be good with it, too.
Mmmm…I need to make this soon.
Daniel
Two things I do:
1- brush the tuna steaks lightly with oil, then roll in sesame seeds - either all white, all black, or a mix of black\white seeds. Sear the steaks over medium to medium-high heat until the seeds are just browned. Remove from the heat and serve immediately, as the tuna will continue cooking on its own.
OR
2 - Marinate the steaks in a combination of olive oil, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic, ginger, and peppercorns. Use about a cup of oil, with the proportions of the other ingredients to taste. Marinate for an hour at room temperature, then grill or pan sear\roast to taste and (again) serve immediately.
YUM!
Oh, and serve with rice, steamed asparagus, and a nicely chilled bottle of Riesling or Gewurztraminer 
Now you guys are making me really hungry. I might just have to blend your ideas and create my own (I’m good at that). And a bottle of Gewurz will go nicely with that spicier version. I have some Hogue in the cellar that I’ve been wanting to drink. Now what to do with the bottle of Carmenere that I opened yesterday (it would overwhelm tuna).
I blacken them using a creole spice mixture (I make it myself because many commercially available ones are too salty) using lots of butter. Seared and spicy on the outside, raw on the inside. YUMMM!
Here’s a recipe that approximates it:
http://chef-of-the-month.com/recipes/chef-paul/seafood/Blackened-Fish-Fillets.shtml
And I do cook them outside on the grill in a cast iron skillet. Do not attempt this on your stove top!
I came up with this one based on a wonderful dish I had at a restaurant once.
Take a saucepan and heat some olive oil. Be careful because olive oil burns quickly, and don’t use too much oil, only enough to cover the surface of the pan. Season the tuna with salt on both sides, pepper and garlic (but not too much garlic, just a bit spread on top of the steak). Then fry the tuna on all sides, but don’t let it linger too long, since it will continue to cook later and you don’t want it to dry up. Once it’s sealed on all sides, add about a cup of balsamic vinegar to the mix. Let it simmer for a while and turn it, then add dried oregano leaves on top of the tuna. If you want, you can take out the tuna steaks and allow the sauce to simmer a while longer, so that the flavour concentrates more, or just take them out and serve it like that. Serve it with all the sauce that remains in the pan on top of the tuna. yuuum.
I’m sorry about not giving exact measurements (cups, teaspoons, etc), but it was an “invented” recepie (Actually, derivative, but I’ll take the credit anyway).
Aside: Has anyone noticed that tuna steaks tend to get cold extremely fast?
Yes - so eat fast. 
I’m fond of pan frying them in butter and garlic, sprinkling salt and pepper on them, and then, once cooked (with a bit of pink left inside), and drizzling them with lemon juice and a not-too-sweet soy sauce. Served on white (sticky) rice.
Well, just finished dinner. Over all a nice effect. I think I went a bit overboard on the plum paste and marinade in general (I love sauces), and sadly overcooked the tuna. But the presentation was very nice, I sided it up with wasabi, sushi ginger, pickled japanese radishes, rice and sugar snap peas. Coupled with a 2001 late harvest Riesling from Hogue (Columbia, WA). That’s a sweetish wine, which was a welcome counterpoint from the other flavors.
One question: a couple of you (Audrey most recently) have mentioned sticky rice. We have jasmine rice (khao hom malit) and sticky rice (khao niao) in our house, but the process for making sticky rice takes about two days. I assume that’s not the kind of sticky rice to which you refer. What kind are you talking about?
Oh, definitely not that kind. I’m talking about the kind Chinese fried rice or sushi is made out of, as opposed to the Uncle Ben’s type.
Ok, got it. We take our rice pretty seriously in these parts, probably average a pot of rice a day. I don’t think that we’d consider Uncle Ben’s to actually be rice. Sort of like Chef-Boyardee is Italian food. Our sticky rice is really stick and is made to be eaten with your hands. It’s great with sun-dried pork, papaya salad, stuff like that.
Personally, I like tuna best if it’s FRESH, and I don’t do a thing to it…just throw it on the grill. I work at a marina and sometimes one of the guys has a great day and hits me off with pounds and pounds of super fresh tuna steaks(sushi quality).
FWIW, I only drew the distinction to be safe. In my experience, “white rice” to most people is the stuff that doesn’t stick together, like rice pilaf.
It’s quite possible you eat more rice than I do. Considering 1) I’m Japanese, and 2) I come from Hawaii, where everything is served with two scoops rice, and 3) I’ve been known to eat spaghetti and pizza pockets on cold rice, that’s very, very scary. 
Well, Mrs. ShibbOleth is Thai. The standard greeting for many Thai people (informally), is “Hello, have you eaten (rice) yet”. Even the word for eat, gin khao, means “eat rice”. I probably don’t eat it as often as you do, but within the household, let’s just say it’s popular.
You should really give Thai sticky rice sometime. Just remember you’re supposed to squish it with your fingers (sort of like Playdoh) before you eat it, then you dip it into whatever you’re eating.
I’ll see if the stores here have it. Is it (relatively) bland, like other rices? And since you dip it, it works best with foods with sauces?