[Sca-cooks] Grilled Tuna - recipe for my upcoming feast

[Euriol of Lothian]

I’m currently in the process of planning a feast for the end of May that is
based on Spanish Recipes and testing recipes out of Ruperto de Nola's "Libre
del Coch"  and flipping through the pages of the book I saw a recipe for
Grilled Swordfish and Grilled Tuna. I thought to myself, I would like to
make one of these for my feast. So at the store yesterday I found some
frozen tuna steaks and thought I’d give the tunae recipe a go. Mind you, I
had only glanced at the recipes about two weeks ago and could not remember
any of the details. With tuna in hand and whatever was in my cabinet I
decided to cook it for dinner tonight. Rereading the recipes I saw that the
treatment of the sauce was very similar.

 

 

These translations are by Lady Brighid ni Chiarain as posted in Stefan's
Florilegium

 

189. Swordfish on the grill

EMPERADOR EN PARRILLAS

Cut the swordfish as if you were going to roast it, and remove everything
that is inside; and set it to roast on the grill, greasing it with oil,
little by little. Then make your light sauce which is orange juice, and
pepper, and oil, and salt, and a little water; and you will put all this in
a small pot, and when they want to eat, put it on a plate; and cast on the
said sauce with the other herbs: parsley, and mint, and marjoram.

209. Tunny on the grill

TOÑINA EN PARRILLAS

Take from the tunny the part near the belly, well-cleaned, and grease it
with oil; and also grease the grill, and set [the tuna] to roast over a few
coals, and grease them from time to time with oil; and then make your thin
sauce with water, and salt, and oil, and orange juice, and pepper, and all
the good herbs shredded or cut small; and when they want to eat, put your
fish on the plate and cast that sauce on top; and if you wish to make
another sauce, such as arugula or another, let it be according to your
pleasure.

 

This is what I did:

1 lb. Tuna Steaks

Olive oil to baste

Salt and pepper to taste

(For the Sauce)

¾ cup orange juice (made from concentrate)

1 tbsp. lime juice

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. orange zest

½ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. grains of paradise (I have run out of black pepper in my house!)

1 tsp. Italian Herbs

1 tsp. dried parsley

First I put the ingredients for the sauce together in a small sauce pan and
let it reduce over a low heat while I prepared the tuna steaks. I lightly
oiled the tuna steaks with the olive oil and simply seasoned them on both
sides with salt and the little bit of pepper remaining in my pepper mill. I
cooked these in my George Foreman grill (which I also lightly coated with
olive oil) for about 5 minutes, until they were about a little more than
medium rare. I served this on top a bed of saffron rice made with chicken
stock drizzling the sauce over the tuna steaks.

I was really pleased with how this came out. and even though my son had a
cavity filled this afternoon, he ate his whole ½ pound tuna steak. I was so
giddy cooking this dish and so excited after dining on it, I just had to
share.

I do want to try adding in some mint to the sauce the next time, because I
think it would be a nice contrast to the orange. We shall see.

 

Euriol

 

 

Euriol of Lothian, OP

Clerk, Order of the Pelican, Kingdom of Æthelmearc

Chronicler, Barony of Endless Hills

 

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was
service. I acted and behold, service was joy."

-Robindranath Tagore, Poet/Playwright/Essayist 1913 Nobel Prize for
Literature