A Favorite Dish {Tuna Tartare}

A very favorite dish of mine can be found at many restaurants, including The Cheesecake Factory and a local spot called Aperitivo (amazzzinnggg).

I love Tuna. I love it in sushi. I love it seared and served over rice. I love it seared and cooled over a salad. I love it in carpaccio. But, my heart skips a beat whenever I am served Tuna Tartare. 

 

I've ordered this dish almost every time I've seen it on a menu. I've almost always seen it served layered with avocado. Sometimes it has matchstick radishes, sometimes it has a layer of tempura (I don't like that), sometimes it has diced mango (love that).

My Husband's Uncle caught a BLUEFIN tuna while fishing off the coast of the cape. They know of my deep love for all things tuna, so they saved the belly (or Toro) for me. 

My Inlaws and Husband aren't die hard fans of eating raw tuna, like me. I thought that my favorite dish is a nice gateway dish to introduce them to tuna raw.

 

My Mother in Law found a great recipe for Tuna Tartare in Bon Appetit magazine. I stuck to the recipe when I made it, but I would definitely alter it a bit, because there were a few things that I wasn't a huge fan of. They mashed up 1 avocado with 1 tbsp of olive oil, and I didn't like that at all. I don't think that the avocado needs any oil, it is creamy and wonderful all on its own. They also only used 1 avocado for 4 people, but I used 2.

TUNA TARTARE RECIPE

Ingredients: 

Dressing

2 tsp finely grated lime zest

2 tbsp fresh lime juice

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp + 2 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp champagne vinegar

2 tbsp grated ginger

Wonton Crisps

8 wonton wrappers, sliced diagonally into triangles

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp sesame seed seasoning blend

Tuna

10 oz sushi grade tuna minced** (we had Bluefin Toro, the best of the best in the world. I am seriously spoiled)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp minced chili (serrano, jalepeno)

1 tsp minced shallot

Kosher Salt

2 avocado, halved, pitted

4 radishes thinly sliced and then cut into matchsticks

A few drizzles of chili oil

**A good tip for mincing tuna is doing while it is a little frozen. I put our belly in the freezer for a half hour before you are ready to mince**

Recipe: 

Dressing

1. Combine the lime zest, lime juice, sugar, and 2 tbsp of water in a small saucepan
2. Bring them to a boil, and remove from heat
3. Cover and let cool completely
4. Strain through a mesh sieve into a medium bowl
5. Whisk in soy sauce, vinegar, and ginger until combined
6. Chill until ready to use

Wonton Crisps

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment
3. Put wontons on parchment
4. Brush face up side of wontons with olive oil
5. Sprinkle with sesame seed blend
6. Bake in oven for ~7 minutes, or until golden brown

Tuna

1. Toss minced tuna with olive oil, shallot, and chile
2. Scoop avocado flesh into a small bowl, with a pinch of kosher salt, and mash until there are only a few chunks. 
3. Divide avocado among plates
4. Top the avocado with the tuna mixture
5. Drizzle a tbsp of the dressing onto each of 4 stacks
6. Top with radishes
7. Drizzle with chile oil
8. Make plate look pretty by adding wontons
9. SERVE
10. I recommend putting the dressing on the table too, as people will likely want more.

I have had a very hurt back for almost 3 weeks now, and my Husband got me this gorgeous sunflower to brighten my day.

Naturally, glamor shots to follow.

Hope you enjoyed! This is another meal off of My Bucket List, another item added to My Finished Projects.   

HOLLER!

An Easter Tradition

It is our family tradition to have stuffed artichokes for Easter. We are Italian, but I really have no clue if this is a real tradition from Italy, or one of those Italian-American things we made up along the way (like anything a la vodka). I actually really don't care, I will make them every Easter the Earth runs out of artichokes or I die (this is my pledge). 

As you likely know, every Italian family on Earth makes their own version of each dish, so this is how my family makes stuffed artichokes. 

Step 1: Get the most gorgeous artichokes you can find. I found these at our Hannaford for $1.19ea (that's a great price for chokes this big)

Step 2: Cut about 1 - 1 1/2 inches off the top of the artichoke using a sharp knife and then use kitchen shears to trip the tops off each of the remaining leaves. Be sure to rub all of the cut sections with lemon so that they don't brown to quickly (I forgot to do a few in the back of the photo).

Step 3: Neither my mom or my grandma do this (but they have never had pressure cookers). I pre-cook all of the artichokes to get them to open up so that you can stuff the leaves more easily. I follow the pressure cooker instructions, which has me cook them for 10 minutes. 

 (Going into the pressure cooker)

 (Coming out of the pressure cooker)

Step 4:  Rub each leaf with extra virgin olive oil and while you do this, be sure to pull the leaves apart and really separate them so that they can be stuffed more easily. 

 

Step 5: Make your stuffing! This is kind of a "wing it" situation. I can't tell you how much to make in total, it really depends on how many chokes you have and how gargantuan they are. For example, I had to make three batches of stuffing while making these artichokes, they were SO HUGE! I am lucky we have so much cheese in the house or else I would have been running out to the store for sure.

It is comprised of:

1) equal parts grated Italian cheese blend (I used asiago, parmigiano reggiano, and pecorino romano) 

2) and Italian blend bread crumbs (I use Cora brand)

3) 1/4 c or more of dried parsley 

4) 1/4 garlic powder

5) 1 tbsp freshly group black pepper

6) NO SALT (there is more than enough in the cheese) 

Mix all of those ingredients together:

And then add copious amounts of extra virgin olive oil so that the stuffing resembles more of a coarse meal and sticks together a bit. At this point I usually taste the stuffing to see if it is sufficiently garlicky. It usually is. I doctor it up until it tastes so good that I start eating it by the spoonful:

Step 6: Stuff that baby! The size of the artichoke leaves determines what size spoon you will use. For these chokes, I used a small spoon (about the size of a iced teaspoon (no, not a teaspoon) and then a teaspoon. It is much easier to use a small spoon and just add two spoonfuls than it is to use a spoon too big. To fill the chokes you take a spoonful of stuffing and literally stuff each and every leave of this baby until you cannot pull it apart anymore.

 (This was the first one of the batch that I stuffed, and I was a little shy with the stuffing; I was trying to ration)

Step 7: Preheat your oven to 350. Take the stuffed chokes and put them in a oven safe container with about 1 1/2 inches of water in the pan (enough water to just touch the top of the first set of stuffed leaves). Drizzle olive oil over the top of the chokes. Bring the chokes and water to a boil, cover with a lid (or foil), and bake in the oven for 2 hours or until the leaves are tender.

You can tell that the leaves are done when an OUTER leaf pulls off easily (the outside leaves are the toughest) and when you scrape the stuffing off the leaf, the meat of the leaf comes off without a problem. The stuffing should also be a nice golden brown.

 

Step 8: MANGIA! This is not the type of food to eat daintily. Sit down with a stuffed artichoke and a big glass of your favorite red wine, and dig right in. We usually serve these as appetizers and they are meant to be shared.

My mom and I cooked up 6 of these babies to bring to my in-laws for Easter, and only 4 actually made it out the door only 4 made it into their house, we picked at them along the way. I may smell like a hot garlicky mess for a week, but nothing else matters when a stuffed artichoke is put in front of your face. 

I hope you enjoy the recipe, it has given us much happiness at our Easter table (if there are still some left by the time dinner rolls around).

Happy Easter!

xoxo