I've made this meal a few times, always with one of my Nom Collective comrades: twice with Captain Letdown, my esteemed roommate, and once while visiting the lovely Missy. The centerpiece of the dinner is the black pepper and sesame crusted tuna steak with ginger-shiitake cream sauce of the post title. Captain Roommate found this recipe on Epicurious, and it is pretty spectacular. The tuna itself is just delicious seared steaks, but the sauce is INSANE. In order to enjoy this sauce as much as possible, by putting it on everything ohmygoodnessitissogood, we served it with wasabi mashed potatoes, which are an excellent vehicle for it. Here at Ten Forward, we had a seaweed salad for the vegetable. Captain Action made it, so I can't really speak to a recipe, but it was two or three types of dried seaweed that we keep in the cabinet, soaked and drained and then dressed with a rice wine vinaigrette with sesame. Also there were carrots ins. This is a pretty wonderful, fancy-ish meal, but it really comes together very quickly. There's a decent amount of prep work, but the only part of the cooking that takes any time at all is boiling the potatoes. (And as noted above, I don't know how long the seaweed needs to soak for.) The tuna is only seared, and the sauce takes five or six minutes, max, to make. I'm going to separate the recipes out (tuna and sauce/potatoes) but my advice in terms of order is that you put the potatoes up, then do all the prep work for the sauce while they boil, then mash and season the potatoes, then cook the tuna and make the sauce. Because the sauce only cooks for a minute or two at each stage, and the tuna is only seared, it's really important to have everything chopped up and ready to add before you start. The potatoes retain heat well, and since the oven is on low (200ºF) for the fish to sit in anyway, they can hang out in there while other things happen as long as they're in something vaguely oven-safe. On to recipes!
Wasabi mashed potatoes
(Disclaimer: I've never in my life used or made a recipe for mashed potatoes. I'm keeping this one vague, because in my opinion the levels of everything are taste-dependent and should be personalized. So: instead of precise, conversational.)
Potatoes
salt
pepper
milk or cream
butter
wasabi (paste or powder)
Put a pot of salted water on to boil. There should be enough room and water for the potatoes to be covered with an inch or so to spare. Meanwhile, cut the potatoes into roughly regular chunks. (You could peel them first, if you like, but I like the skins.) I usually use small potatoes like Yukon Golds, and cut them in half or in thirds depending on how big they are, but all that really matters is that the pieces are about the same size. When the water hits a rolling boil, lower the potatoes in and cover, (or don't, really.) Keep the water at a steady boil and boil until the potatoes are tender when you stick a fork through them. This should take something like ten to twenty minutes, and as mentioned, it's a perfect time to be peeling and chopping garlic and ginger and all that. Also, if you're using dried wasabi powder, you can prepare it now - the brands we get tend to want you to let it sit, covered, for at least five minutes after mixing with water and before use. I recommend you make more than you think you'll need, so you can add it gradually to taste. When the potatoes are tender, drain them, transfer to a bowl and mash with a masher or a fork or, you know, anything else that works. Now is when all the amounts depend on your taste and preferences. I start by adding butter, salt and pepper, but less than I think it will end up needing. After that, I adjust by taste, adding more butter, and/or milk and/or cream, until I have a texture I like, and more salt and pepper until it is delicious. Ordinarily, I like significant amounts of black pepper in my mashed potatoes, and often cracked red pepper flakes as well, but for wasabi-flavored ones I hold back on the pepper- there's plenty more bite coming, and I don't want to overshadow the wasabi's taste. I like to add the wasabi last, after the potatoes seem delicious and balanced. Who can say why! I just think it's a good idea. The wasabi should definitely be added gradually, and to your taste - I like it to be a noticeable but not overpowering flavor, and my potatoes tend to end up tinted slightly green. When they are how you want them, set them aside (perhaps in the oven!) until serving time.
Black pepper and sesame crusted tuna steaks with ginger-shiitake cream sauce
From epicurious.com. The original is supposed to make enough sauce for six tuna steaks, but clearly Bon Appetit magazine did not fully appreciate the glory of this sauce. Last time I made it, we made two tuna steaks, but only halved the sauce recipe. Next time, I'm just going to make the full sauce recipe, because it is wonderful and leftover sauce on a baked potato would center a very fine dinner, in my opinion. Accordingly, I'm including the full recipe here, not a halved one. Depending on how much sauce you want, it would work for two to six people; adjust as needed.
tuna steaks (one per person)
coarsely ground black peppr
coarse salt
sesame seeds (we used a mix of black and regular, because we had them around and it's pretty)
sauce:
3 T (tablespoons; t = teaspoons) butter
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
2 T finely chopped peeled ginger root
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
half a pound of fresh shiitake mushrooms, cleaned, stemmed, and sliced
6 T soy sauce
1.5 cups whipping cream
3 T fresh lime juice
Preheat the oven to 200ºF - this is where the tuna will wait while the sauce is being made. Heat the oil (a tablespoon or two) in a large, heavy skillet on high heat. Mix the coarse black pepper and the sesame, along with a sprinkling of coarse salt, together on a plate, and lay one or both (up to you!) sides of each tuna steak on it to coat. If you only coat one side with the sesame, you should still season the other side with a little salt and pepper.When the skillet is heated, place the tuna steaks (or some of them, if you're making too many to fit) in the hot oil.
Now, the original recipe says to leave them for two minutes, but that is crazy talk. You want a delicious crust, but you don't want the fish cooked through (I mean, unless you do, but that is not what I am looking for from tuna steak.) Watch them, but I advise leaving them no more than a minute. Turn over and, again, sear to desired doneness- again, they think two minutes, I think more like one. When you've got them where you want them, remove them to a baking sheet and pop it in the oven to stay warm. To the same pan, with its bit of oil and peppery-sesame-y tuna crust bits, add the butter, ginger, garlic, green onion, and cilantro, and saute until it smells wonderful, about thirty seconds. Add the soy sauce and the mushrooms, and simmer another thirty seconds, then add the cream (you probably want to ease off the heat at this point) and simmer merrily until your sauce lightly coats the back of a spoon, roughly three minutes during which you can start plating everything up. Mix in the lime juice and serve.
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