The Big Tuna
When it comes to making lunch, tuna salad is quick, easy, affordable and delicious. But when my friend and fellow Backdropper Allory challenged me to make tuna steaks with her, I was a bit apprehensive. I’d seen tuna steaks on Food Network before. They’re served almost rare, and having that much red in my meat (or seafood, as it were) just seemed wrong. But I’ve never been one to back out of a dare, so I went with Allory to Kroger and picked up a couple of tuna steaks from the frozen seafood case. They’re actually pretty affordable; one steak was about $5.00, and a big one is really enough for two people. We grabbed a recipe from the meat counter (yes, Kroger does hand out free recipes…who knew?) and got to work.
Sicilian Tuna
You will need:
- a grill pan
- 2 small tuna steaks (or 1 large one)
- 1 small red onion
- 1 small bulb of fennel (another new ingredient, but also very affordable and easy to find at Kroger)
- 1 red pepper
- 4 cloves of garlic (or 2 tbsp garlic powder)
- ¼ cup plus 1 tbsp olive oil, divided
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp parsley
- salt and pepper
Start by making the marinade. Combine the ¼ cup olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl. Chop the red pepper and garlic into small pieces, then add to the bowl, along with the parsley. Season with salt and pepper. Put the tuna steaks into a shallow dish, then pour most of the marinade over the fish, turning to coat evenly. Save about ¼ a cup of the marinade for later. Put the fish in the refrigerator to marinate for about half an hour.
When the fish is almost ready to be pulled out of the fridge, preheat your grill pan over medium to medium-high heat. Chop the fennel and red onion into large chunks. If you look at the photo, you’ll see that I mistakenly chopped them relatively small…that made getting them off the grill pretty difficult. Big chunks are definitely the way to go. Drizzle the veggies with the 1 tbsp of olive oil, then throw on the grill and cook until just tender, only a couple minutes. Transfer to a plate, drizzle with the remaining marinade and keep warm.
Put the fish on the grill next. I’m not a big fan of rare food, so I cooked it for 3 minutes on each side, then flipped again (for the cross-hatch grill marks, of course) and cooked another minute or two on each side. If you prefer rarer fish, 3 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other is sufficient. The fish is done enough to eat when it’s firm to the touch. Serve immediately with the grilled veggies.
Tags: College Kitchen, Emma Frankart, tuna