Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Barefoot Bloggers: Tuna Salad

This month's first selection for Barefoot Bloggers is mine and I chose Ina Garten's Tuna Salad. This was a tough choice -- I moved up the list so quickly, I had to make new choices repeatedly as the time of year changed, and at the last minute, I just chose something I thought was fresh and simple and relatively healthy.

I also chose this recipe because the best "salad" I ever had was a grilled tuna salad dish at a Todd English restaurant -- Olives, in Las Vegas. It was so memorable I still think about it. Ina's recipe was similar in most respects, so I thought it would be a good stand-in.

Regrettably, I've learned that what I can get very easily -- tuna steaks for $5.69 a pound -- others cannot, so for those who gave this recipe a try, thank you, and for those who couldn't, I'm sorry about that. I trust you used the Barefoot Backtrack feature to choose something more to your liking.

I stared with Albacore tuna steaks -- $4.10 for the package. The steak is brushed with olive oil and grilled in a very hot pan. Ina instructs for just a minute or two on each side. This is essentially the same as the grilled tuna you'd find in restaurants, blackened on the outside and raw on the inside. While I do like this, I prefer my raw fish to be served to me in restaurants, and not handled in my own home, so for my version, I grilled it all the way through (and this is the way it was served in the Vegas restaurant, where I enjoyed it so much).

In the meantime, I'd mixed the dressing and tossed it with a chopped avocado, fresh from the Farmer's Market today. The dressing is very basic -- lime juice, olive oil, soy sauce, wasabi, salt and pepper. I ended up just whirling the ingredients together in quantities that tasted good to me. I didn't add nearly the salt she called for -- soy sauce takes care of that, and I added sesame chili oil in addition to the drops of hot sauce. I'm a hot sauce weenie, I don't like it all, but I know it serves an important purpose in certain dishes, like Asian dressings. I also added a lot more wasabi than called for. Love that stuff.

After the tuna chunks were grilled, I added them to the dressed avocados.
Now, bear something in mind. Ceviche, a traditional spanish dish of cold fish in a citrusy lime dressing, is "cooked" by adding lime juice to fish. The acid cooks the fish, so this tuna salad, which contains a lot of lime juice, cannot be made in advance and stored without the lime juice cooking the fish. If you're making it with a raw interior, don't dress the cooked tuna until you are ready to serve it, and reserve any leftover dressing. Store the tuna undressed, if you want leftovers. For mine, which was cooked all the way through, it was less of an issue, but head's up!

I added chopped scallions, more sliced avocado, and sprinkled with additional chili oil. I didn't bother with the red onions. I thought that a big handful of scallions was adequate for the onion flavor.

And here it is, my tower of Tuna Salad, ready to chill (it's great warm, but I preferred it chilled).



I really liked this. The dressing would be great with chicken, salmon, beef, tofu -- you name it. For those who gave it a try, thank you. Tuna isn't hard to make and it's easy to customize. In fact, I'd encourage you to cook a tuna steak and dress it as you would a traditional tuna salad. There is no comparison to the canned stuff.

About this challenge: The Barefoot Bloggers join forces and cook or bake recipes by Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten each month, chosen in order by members, and present them for discussion on two Thursdays each month. Hungry? Please join us at the table!

21 comments:

  1. You've convinced me! This is a lovely adaptation of Ina's recipe.

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  2. I'm going to be a couple days late making this since my kitchen is currently completely torn up! But it sounds great and I can't wait to try it seared :)

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  3. Great pick--I am a huge ahi tuna fan and I loved that it was healthy! Good flavors too.

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  4. Kate, Thanks for what turned out to be a wonderful pick. Your pictures are way better than mine.

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  5. Beautiful presentation! This turned out to be a great pick. I used salmon and it was wonderful. This is a very versatile recipe. How fun you were able to recreate a favorite dish in the process too!

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  6. I had no access to tuna, so I ended up doing a track back.

    Yours looks great.

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  7. Thanks for the great selection. I loved this recipe. Althought I like tuna very rare, I could see the dish working with fully cooked tuna as well.

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  8. Oh, yum! This looks and sounds great.

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  9. Your avocado chunks are very pretty all stacked on top there!

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  10. oh wow! yours looks SO juicy and vibrant! as i said on the blog, i'm so glad you chose this. it allowed a lot of yummy variations. i must say, i am jealous of your tuna steaks, though. they look fantastic -- i might even like them! =)

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  11. I really like your variations and if I try this again, you can bet there will not be the added salt in mine! Your photos are lovely.

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  12. If I could get tuna for that price, I would make this all the time!

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  13. GREAT pick! I ended up using salmon instead but loved it just the same.

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  14. We only have access to 2 different kinds of fish: salmon and catfish. And decided to track it, but your version looks incredible!!

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  15. Kate,
    Thanks for selecting this recipe! I would never have come up with this on my own and had been looking for a Poke recipe for some time. This was perfect. By the way, your pictures are beautiful....I still need to work on that!

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  16. great choice! i actually bought fresh tuna for this. i am surprised by how many people had so much trouble finding tuna. even i found it!

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  17. I am not a huge tuna fan, I think I just need to have it more.

    Your salad looks awesome!

    ;) amy

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  18. thanks for the yummy selection this week!

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  19. I loved this recipe! And it would truly work with any protein, chicken, salmon (which I used), canned tuna, crab meat, shrimp, scallops, pork and the list goes on.

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  20. This looks amazing!! I haven't made it yet but after seeing yours am really looking forward to it! Thanks for picking a recipe I may have overlooked...I have some tuna steaks in the freezer! ;)

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  21. Great selection - I really loved this and will make it often. Thanks for your pick.

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