Narragansett, Tuna Tartar Recipe:
Quantities of all of these ingredients are proportioned to your individual taste. Gauge it up and down in small batches until you love it. Use the volume ranges indicated below to dial it in.
Bowl #1: 1.5 lb of diced and well-drained tuna meat – I use the meat between the spines mostly because it is tender, available, and will be diced up anyway so don’t mind the small chunks that peel off the rack with a tablespoon. I also use the toro meat because it is fatty and tasty and mixes well with the loin meat. I dice it up BY HAND as fine as I can using a very sharp chopping knife.
Before chopping, make sure the meat is patted down with a paper towel to remove as much fluid as possible. The moisture will be returned to the meat with the ingredients below.
Do not use a food processor as turns it into hotdog meat :-) and not very appealing visually. The little tuna cubes add a nice texture.
Cover the bowl of tuna meat with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator immediately after dicing to keep it cold and hard.
Bowl #2: Combine the following ingredients:
Large handful of scallions diced thinly (As thinly as Brian Jay can slice them)
1 teaspoon of minced garlic
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds (toasted and untoasted)
1 – 1 ½ teaspoon of sea salt (They sell McCormick sea salt in a grinder)
1 teaspoon of ground pepper
1 oz. of sesame seed oil
1-2 oz of soy sauce – I use low salt soy.
2 oz white wine or your choosing. I use a chardonnay
1-2+ oz of Sriracha Sauce (Carefully add this to taste – It can have an overpowering effect on the flavor of the meat – Don’t overdo this because you like it spicy)
1 lime worth of juice NOTE: Add the lime juice just before serving. If left on the tuna too long, the acidity starts to cook the meat like a ceviche.
Bowl #3: Scoop 3-5 ripe avocados into a separate empty bowl. Dice them and add salt to taste
Bowl #4: Peel 2 large cucumbers completely and dice into ¼ inch cubes. I find that the European cukes are best. You want as few of the seeds as you can get. I have removed seeds in the past. Once in the bowl, I splash them with rice wine vinegar. Let sit for 30 minutes then drain all fluids from cukes. You’ll see why shortly.
Small bowl #5: Wash a large handful of shishito peppers, slice axially to expose the seeds, and remove the seeds with a teaspoon. Slice thinly as a top garnish. These are excellent.
Small Bowl #6: Wash and slice large radishes for side garnish. Do not peel – The red-colored skin is visually appealing
Preparation: It’s important that tuna be served very cold - So do this part quickly.
Remove chilled tuna from the refrigerator and uncover.
Add all of the ingredients from Bowl #2 into the tuna bowl and mix well with a large spoon. Try to keep the sliced scallions intact and not mashed by the spoon. Combine softly.
In each appetizer dish, scoop some avocado onto the dish and spread out into a 3-4” pancake-looking base.
Scoop enough diced and drained cucumbers onto the top of the avocado base to cover it. Because you dried the cukes, they will not leak water onto the plate. Composition…
Scoop tuna onto the cucumbers to form a mound of about 3 oz of meat.
Add shishito pepper garnish on top of tuna meat
Add 4-6 radish slices to the side of the plate
Sprinkle a small amount of ponzu sauce droplets around the avocado. NOT ON IT. This can appear sloppy so control the amount you add very carefully. It should not dilute the avocado paste and look messy.
Drizzle sriracha mayo over tuna and sprinkle additional sesame seeds.
Add vegetables like edamame, cherry tomatoes and radishes, and seaweed salad to the dish and serve.
Serve with plenty of corn chips.
