Tuna Tartar with a Tuscan touch

A few words upfront

For all our recipes we use the freshest ingredients. That is particularly important for this one since the main ingredient here is raw tuna fish. Tuna are oily fish, so be careful they spoil quickly, it needs to be very fresh. We also for tuna dishes make sure that we understand where this fish is from and how it was fished. Try to find tuna with a "dolphin friendly" label. That means they most likely are fished with a line rather than a net in which also dolphins get caught.

Look for pieces with dark red flesh, which are nicely trimmed and firm. Stay away from pieces with discoloration since it will not look and taste good.

Smell it; a clean, oceanic aroma is a good indication for freshness. There should be no smell of ammonia or any fishy smell since that indicates degrading proteins. If you press the fish with your fingers it should press back like a spring.

The reasons why we love this dish are simple. 

It's easy to prepare, no need to cook, super fresh and light and also you can give your friends a good show preparing it. Prepare it in front of their eyes since this dish whoul be eaten right after preparation. With a bit of upfront preparation the tartar is done within 5 minutes if you are a bit less experienced 7 minutes if you are not.

What we need for 4

• 300-400g of fresh tuna steak
• a large bunch of fresh basil
• 4 small cherry tomatos
• tbl spoon of each white and black sesame seeds (only white will do as well)
• good quality (japanese) soy sauce
• an organic lime
• thumbsize piece of fresh ginger
• 1 chili (leave it out if you serve to small kids)
• 1 spring onion (scallion)
• olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic
• roasted sesame oil
• a glass of organic Giant Basil Pesto (from our shop)

How to prepare it

Let's assume the scenario that you cook for friends. We will have 2 steps: 

Preparation (mis en place)

The Show (putting the ingredients together)

Mis en place - get ready!

You have a quiet kitchen, a sharp knife and all ingredients except for the fish in front of you. Do not start earlier than 2 hours before you actually prepare the dish.

Slice the scallion in very thin slices (only the white and light green part) and put aside in a bowl.

On medium heat put a non-stick pan and slowly roast the sesame seeds until golden brown. That brings out the extra kick in the sesame. 

Deseed the tomatos and slice them in very thin slices do the same with the chili. Put it in separate bowls and set aside. Having everthing in separate bowls will make sure you can mix the ingredients individually as you like later. And let's face it it will make you look extremely organised in front of your friends :-)

Peel the ginger with a spoon and grate it with a fine cheese grater. That will make sure you will not have any ginger strings in the dish. Do the same with the clove of garlic. And you guessed it ... put it aside in bowls - keep cool.

- Hint - If you half the garlic clove and take out the sprout the garlic is better digestible (limits all the nasty side effects)  and less smelly. 

Grate some lime cest and squeeze the lime juice to it and put aside.

The show - Make it happen!

Your friends should be there by now enjoying a nice glass of Le Petit Xavier blanc or La Marimorena.

Let the show begin ...

Take 2 large bowls - 1 for serving and one for preparing.

Rip the basil leaves by hand in medium size pieces. Doing it that way instead of cutting them preserves the structural integrity of this sensitive herb and the herbs stay crunchy and don't get mushy. Transfer to the bowl.

Add a tbl spoon of each the sesame oil and the olive oil to the basil. Also add the sesame seeds to the mix but leave a bit to sprinkle on the tartar at the end. Add the slices of tomato, ginger, chili and scallion. To give it this nice Italian twist add a spoon of Pesto. The sweetness of the pine nuts provide a nice little counter balance to the acidity of the lime juice. Gently mix it.

Leave the slicing of the tuna for last to keep it cool as long as possible. On a clean plate with a sharp knife slice the tuna into small cubes. The size of the cubes is not important. We like to keep the cubes in a size so that we actually can still bite the tuna - so rather big. If you like it creamier and less chunky just make smaller cubes - easy.

 Add the tuna to the bowl with the oil mix. Very gently mix it. 

It is important to mix the oily ingredients with the tuna first. This way the oil is coating the pieces of tuna.

Why do we want this? If we add the soy sauce before the oil the salt in the sauce will extract the water from the fish and the dish gets really soggy and watery. Should you add the lime before the oil you will see that the acids in the lime juice "cooks" the tuna and makes it go grey - so you lose the nice color.

However now is the time when you should let your friends smell the dish ... The roasted sesame smell combined with basil will blow them away.

To your liking now add the lime juice and the cest and finally the soy sauce gently and mix. Transfer to the serving bowl or the individual plates - directly. Do not let the tartar sit around or else it will change color and consistency.

Serve it with a nice glass of Marimorena or Le Petit Xavier (both are Sauvignon based with a good concentration of acidity and can handle the hint of lime in the dish) and freshly toasted bread.

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