Make it – Ahi Tuna with pepper crust
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As promised, this week’s ‘Make it‘ Monday recipe is below. I made this for the Mister and I the day before I had to leave for LA (I wanted his last memory of me to be when I was at my domestic goddess best 
).
Anyway, I was initially pretty intimidated and overwhelmed by the thought of cooking with both ahi tuna AND bok choy, but the Mister loves ahi tuna and I figured it was worth the risk — you know what they say – love conquers – HA! I’m so lame…
I stopped at Whole Foods to pick up the essentials and crossed my fingers for the best.
Trust me. If I can pull this off, you can too. It really only took about 30 minutes from chopping to plating. Yes, it was a bit annoying to whip up a homemade sauce, but I was able to control the fat, sugar and sodium, which makes it worth it in my book.
Here’s the recipe — try it, you won’t be dissapointed.
You’ll need (serves two – multiply ingredients by two to serve four):
1/2 pound ahi tuna, cut into 4-ounce portions (I asked the guy to do it at Whole Foods to make it easy for me!)
Cracked black pepper (to taste)
For the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon reduced sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1 tablespoon chicken stock (I used Emril’s)
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- pinch of freshly cracked black pepper
- 1 finely chopped scallion
- 1 garlic clove (minced)
- 1/2 cup diced tomato
4 whole scallions
1 head of bok choy (steamed — normally takes 7 minutes)
Place the cracked pepper on a dish. Press each piece of tuna into the pepper to form a crust adding additional pepper, to taste. Set aside.
Preheat the broiler
Combine soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger, chicken stock, black pepper and oil in a sauce pan. Heat until it reaches the boiling point. Remove from heat and add chopped scallion, minced garlic and tomato. Set aside and cover to keep warm.
Place tuna and whole scallions under the broiler and cook for about three minutes on each side (remove scallions once browned).
Divide bok choy between two plates and place each portion of tuna on top. Spoon half of the sauce over each plate.
In the broiler
Plated
Check out that color!
Doesn’t that look fantastic?! The sauce was INCREDIBLE! If you are a vegetarian, I suggest grilling some portobello mushrooms or tofu in place of the tuna. I’m so happy I finally steamed my own bok choy! It turned out great and this whole dish was flavorful, fresh and delicious. I urge you to give it a try. It’s a super fancy looking meal that doesn’t require a lot of effort — isn’t that the best kind? Enjoy!
Have you recently cooked with an ingredient that previously intimidated you? What was it?
That looks fabulous!
[...] I’ll make it up to you next week — in the meantime, check out last week’s Ahi Tuna or my archive of [...]