Sesame seared tuna with a citrus soy glaze

sesame tuna with cucumber salad

Tonight I made tuna with a sesame crust and a cucumber/rice vinegar/sesame salad. This dish is soo easy to make and is truly delish. The main key to this meal is to get reallllly fresh tuna. I topped the fish with a soy/orange glaze and made the rice with a little garlic just to give it that extra kick. I cook this when I am trying to eat light or when I have a craving for sushi (which is almost daily)...too bad my brother Steven doesn't live closer because I think he'd like this too. This is the recipe that "converted" my husband from a non-rare tuna eater to a rare tuna eater and he ate the entire meal using chopsticks! Try it some time if you can get really fresh fish, I think you'll love it!




















Sesame seared tuna


2 nice sized tuna steaks


1tbl ginger


2tbls soy sauce


2 tbls ponzu (if you cant get ponzu just add a little orange juice to you soy sauce)


1 tbl rice wine vinegar (seasoned)


1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil


1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds


~mix all ingredients together and pour over raw fish. Marinate for no more than 30 min then let excess drip off and coat in toasted sesame seeds (can use untoasted or black if you perfer). Saute in a large frying pan with a little oil over high heat for about 1-3 min per side (depending on the thickness of the fillet and how done you like it, but in my opinion, if you aren't going to eat it medium or rare, you should prob look from a different recipe because the fish will dry out and not taste nearly as good). Take the fish out of the pan once it reaches the desired donenss and cut on a bias. Serve with a cucumber salad (seasoned rice vinegar, salt, sesame oil, sesame seeds) and steamed rice (or could serve with jasmine or basmati a la brasileira *see post below), pickled ginger, wasabi for those who like it and of course, chop sticks!

Chicken Romesco and hello again!

chicken romesco

Last night I was in the mood for peppers and because I had a jar of fire roasted yellow peppers that needed to be used, I decided to make chicken with romesco (almond, garlic and peppers) sauce w/ orzo and broccoli with cheese sauce (my mom's cheese sauce). The meal was wonderful and I have the pics to prove it!

I also added some prosciutto melted a little mozzarella and parm over the top just to make it extra decadent.

Romesco Sauce

2-3 Jarred roasted peppers (yellow or red) or roast your own for even better flavor!

1-2 cloves roasted garlic (or 1/2 tsp garlic powder for those of us who are a bit pressed for time)

1/4 c roasted nuts (almonds are the traditional addition to this sauce, but any will do)

1/2 tsp honey (or splenda if you're watching your carbs)

3 tbl olive oil (the best you can get since this is a raw sauce) drizzled in slowly

*blend all ingredients to combine in the blender. If desired you can add green onion or parsley to perk up the sauce.

**I also pan fried chicken breast pieces that I sliced thin then pounded out and topped with white pepper (Jason's on a white pepper kick!), garlic powder and kosher salt, then sauteed them in a pan with a little olive oil until they had some nice color (about 1 1/2 min per side), then put them in a shallow baking dish and topped them with the romesco sauce, a slice of prosciutto and the cheese then put them in the broiler to get the cheese melted and browned. I added butter and the remaining romesco sauce to the orzo then made my mom's wonderful cheese sauce (for Jason, I just topped my broccoli with vinegar and peperonchino) and we had cold glasses of pelegrino to finish it off. Desert, watermelon, YUM!!