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

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Mar 10, 2009, at 6:37 PM, Euriol of Lothian wrote:

> 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.

Nice work!

If you're of a mind to try it, I think there's oil in the sauce;  
possibly similar to a modern herbed vinaigrette, only made with sour  
orange juice (although the combination you used sounds like a good  
substitute) instead of the more usual vinegar or lemon... that'd give  
you a slightly different texture, too.

Hmmph. Now I'm going to go look at my meat loaf, and it's just not  
going to look the same. Thanks ;-)

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter