so in light of my new food issues I have started cooking foods usually best left to the people who know what they are doing. but I Love seared Ahi Tuna. so here is my plan
Costco, they have ahi tuna get some.
take hmmm say half a cup of corn meal
another 1/4 cup of steak seasoning (sea salt, pepper, other spices) and mix in a largeish bowl, dip fish in the mix til coated
(oh yeah, cut the fish into about 1"x1"xwhatever strips first)
heat one cast iron skillet on high heat til its really friggin hot
the steak seasoning has a lot of salt, I know you should salt any meat you intend to eat super rare to kill any bacteria on the outside. I just hope its enough salt
now the tricky part, I need to sear ALL the outside of the fish so
hold the fish pieces and sear the ends, drop fish into pan and sear one side, turn with fingers 90deg and sear next side, then use a spatula to roll the fish to the 3rd side and 4th side by pushing on the already seared sides of the fish
do I have this right from a food prep perspective? I shouldnt be contaminating anything with this technique should I?
and yeah I know its not exactly the standard ahi tuna coating or whatever, I cant have soy or wheat (or anything derived from wheat like say plain white vinegar) so my choices are pretty limited with what I can put on it.
I don’t think there’s any problem with the technique, but I’m not the one who cooks this at our house.
I just came to say my husband coats it with sesame seeds. MMmmm!
Seared ahi tuna is my favorite food ever. Maybe my favorite thing ever; it’s close.
Please see this and then this and then read this.
Rinse the fish in alcohol first. This cleans it and removes some of the fishy odor. A simple white cooking wine will do.
First things first: Listen to Alton Brown and Harold McGee (repeat 3 times).
I am somewhat concerned that the cornmeal will burn all the way to charcoal, a film of oil in the pan may help. Worst come to worst, scrape it off and the fish will be fine underneath.
Now, about contamination…
I assume, that since you are buying from Costco (lucky dog, we don’t have any here), the fish will be frozen at sea and maybe sold thawed in the store. This is standard practice for many fish in most supermarkets and even fish markets throughout the majority of the US (the Costco makes me assume you are in the US). This is a good thing, since in addition to preserving the fish far better than refrigeration, freezing will kill many parasites. The FDA has specifications for temperature and duration of freeze for fish safety, I don’t recall them off hand. The upshot is, you almost certainly don’t have to worry about worms and such.
So, any contamination is going to be bacteria found on:
- Your hands. Wash them beforehand and in between touching raw things and cooked things.
- Your tools. Ditto.
- The surfaces of the fish. Don’t wash them. The rocket-hot iron pan will kill anything that wouldn’t feel at home in the geysers at Yellowstone.
The only scenario I can envision which might result in live bacteria inside the finished, seared fish would be if you poked it with a fork or something while raw, carrying bacteria into the interior, which subsequently doesn’t cook all the way through, because the whole point here is to not cook it all the way through.
While salt will kill most bacteria (mostly through dehydration), you need a lot of it over a greater time to accomplish this (think salt cod or pickles). The real reason for the salt here is because it tastes good and it will help in the compex Maillard reactions that will occur when fish meets hot iron, which taste very good indeed.
In short, use standard kitchen hygine and treat it as you would rare beef and you should be fine. And read ‘On Food and Cooking’ by McGee.
Don’t put cornmeal on the outside of the fish.
Don’t worry about bacteria other than handwashing, etc on the fish itself, because if you’re only searing the exterior and leaving the interior rare/raw, there’s going to be bacteria present in the fish anyway, which, if you trust your purveyor, your stomach acids will destroy anyway.
Instead of crusting it with salt and spices, I would marinate the fish in a soy-based liquid for at least a few hours, which you can add your spices to per your taste.
thanks for the tips guys, I did watch Alton and he cooked for a bit longer than I was thinking to but other than that looks pretty standard.
the part where I cant have soy would make this a really painfully bad idea 
I do a quick brush of sesame oil to each surface. Then, I’d gently press into a plate of seasalt, pepper and sesame seeds (Black & white for visuals, if you have them). Spectacular.
well I had no sesame seeds but the spice mix I had was heavy on the salt and pepper.
very tasty but to much pepper for the fish, I like heat and I love pepper but even my mouth is burning. after scraping some off its damn good. highly recommended.
I will have to get some sesame seeds for next time, that sounds fantastic, sesame oil has a great flavor.