How to Make Tuna Tataki Provencal

Today, we’re bringing together a classic Japanese sashimi technique and a really common combination found in the south of France in provencal style cooking so this is my tuna tataki provencal and here we go, we’re going to start with some really super fresh wild sashimi grade ahi. When you see that grade, that just means that is the freshest, highest quality and yes it is very expensive but worth it because this you can eat raw which we’re not going to exactly. What tataki means is sear the outside so I’m going to cut that fillet and take one of those fillets which is about 9 ounces altogether so I have 2, 4 and a half ounce pieces here and what we’re going to do is we’re going to sear them, slice them and make for a nice presentation. Now traditionally, before you do your tataki of tuna, you’re going to do some kind of marinade or some kind of rub. So I’m going to do a dry rub here with some provencal style flavorings. I have some dry fennel seed I just put in there about a third of a teaspoon. That’s a little shake of cumin. I’ve got some black pepper maybe half a teaspoon. All the amounts as always are on the site. I hope if you’re just watching these videos on Youtube, that you check the blog foodwishes for all the details and story and information. I threw in about a teaspoon of salt there and just give it a mash with your mortar and pestle. Basically, we’re just trying to break up those fennel seeds, at least over the oil, it flavors it always, you don’t want to be biting into a big fennel seed. So that’s pretty much ready to dust our beautiful ahi tuna chunks. So make sure you get all four sides because we when sear these, we’re going to sear them on all four sides. So let me make sure all four sides are flavored. It’s pretty interesting watching me dust spice on a piece of fish. Let’s watch a little longer. That looked just like the first side. I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done that. It gives me a chance to tell you how delicious this dish came out. By the way, you meat eaters, I don’t like fish, this is way closer to a medium rare fillet mignon than it is to any piece of fish. So I hope I’ll lecture you with the end here but you’ve got to try this. So on a hot sauté pan, I drizzled a couple tablespoons of olive oil and we’re going to sear for exactly one minute per side. Now at the end you’ll see how raw it is in the middle which is the idea of tataki sashimi. They sear the outside, they slide it really thin raw and eat it with a traditional sushi accompaniment. We’re using the same technique here but we’re going to serve it on a provencal blood orange tapenade that we made yesterday, hope you saw that clip. So again, I’m going quick cuts here with the time lapse so that was one minute on the first side. We’re going to go one minute on the other side. So basically I want the first eighth of an inch, quarter inch to be cooked and I want a nice raw red center going through the middle so that was one minute on that side and let’s see if my math serves me correctly four minutes, you’re going to be done and then you’re just down to slicing and presenting. Now you could serve this completely cold, let it cool all the way down and then slice it. if you want to do like a cold appetizer plate or what I would do is I would slice this warm and serve it as is. Now watch this. When you go ahead and slice this stuff, it is so beautiful, you see just that first eighth inch, quarter inch is seared. The inside is still raw and again if you, I don’t eat fish, I love rare fillet mignon but I don’t eat fish, this will taste, this is such a buttery delicious texture, it will be better than any fillet mignon you’ve ever had. So if you could find sushi grade ahi, there’s my blood orange tapenade we made yesterday. If you can find this, which you can, if you look hard enough, that will be an incredible experience. It is just like butter. It is so tender. It is not a strong flavor. The sweetness and the slightly saltiness of that olive and blood orange tapenade citron that we did yesterday, perfect with this. By the way, I’m going to demo those see through herb potato crisps little shop trick. I’ll show you that in another demo. But anyway, really nice, bringing two cultures together, a Japanese technique and a south of France Mediterranean flavor profile, delicious, I hope you give that a try and enjoy.