Meaty red-fleshed tuna is delicious raw, seared, rare and cooked through, in which case it doesn’t have to be the premium sashimi-grade. It’s a great pescatarian alternative in classic meat dishes too. Here’s a few of my favourite tuna recipes to get you started.
Meaty red-fleshed tuna is a great pescatarian alternative in classic red meat dishes.
Meaty red-fleshed tuna is a great seafood alternative for meat lovers. Substitute it for the beef or lamb in classic red meat dishes.
Premium quality fresh tuna is at its best raw or cooked rare. Despite being high in omega3 oils, tuna flesh tends to be dry if over-cooked, so be brave and take it off the heat just before you think it’s cooked, it will continue cooking in the residual heat.
Fresh tuna is a very versatile fish, delicious raw, seared, rare and cooked through (just don’t overcook it). It’s tasty with Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian seasonings and cooked in the same way as steaks and other red meat dishes.
Treat tuna like beef or lamb mince and use it to make ‘meat’ balls or burgers. Spice it up with fresh herbs, pepper, salt and chilli and add a rich tomato sauce. Even die-hard carnivores won’t know they’re eating fish.
Sashimi-grade tuna is the freshest, premium quality tuna. It’s caught and handled in ways that ensure it arrives at the market in the best possible condition.
If you’re serving tuna raw, or cooking it rare, it’s important to use sashimi-grade; ask for a log of sashimi-grade tuna that’s already been trimmed of any sinew or membrane, the technical term is ‘saku-cut’ as saku means ‘block’ in Japanese.
While sashimi-grade tuna is essential in dishes where the fish is raw or rare, if you’re cooking tuna all the way through, there’s no need to buy sashimi grade.
While sashimi-grade tuna is expensive because of the labour involved in the way it’s caught and handled, less expensive ‘cooking grade’ tuna can be used in any dish where the fish is cooked through. Tuna off-cuts are also an inexpensive alternative and great in fish ‘meat’ balls as the food processor breaks up any sinew.
While bluefin, yellowfin and bigeye tunas are not cheap fish, their close cousins bonito and albacore are less expensive alternatives that can be substituted for tuna in almost any recipe. Tuna is cheapest in winter, when it’s in season and most abundant.
Remove tuna from the fridge 30–60 minutes before cooking to let it come to room temperature.
Pat it dry with paper towel. Do not wash the fish or put it under water.
Season tuna well with salt before cooking.
Remove tuna from the fridge and set it aside, away from direct sunlight, to allow it to come to room temperature before cooking. This typically takes 30–60 minutes depending on the size of the piece and the air temperature.
After cooking, all fish should be ‘rested’ for a few minutes to allow the juices to return to the centre of the fish. Do this by setting it aside in a warm place (not on direct heat). This is especially important with thick pieces of fish. Tuna is also delicious served at room temperature.
