Ponzu Sesame Seared Tuna with Zucchini & Sweet Onion Sautee

So I'll try my best to recreate this dish for the purpose of this post - but it probably won't turn out EXACTLY like mine did, since I threw stuff together on a whim. I knew we had this amazing sashimi grade Tuna to use up and no money to spend on more groceries... so it required to dig around the pantry/refrigerator to come up with a marinade for the Tuna and a side dish to stand up to the meal.
So I created a marinade from some toasted sesame oil, ponzu sauce, soy sauce, honey, brown sugar, garlic, and vegetable oil. I think some ginger would have really tied it together well, but didn't feel like making a quick trip to the store for a tiny knob of fresh ginger. The zucchini & sweet onion sautee came together out of a late night scramble for some food ... and it turned out to be so yummy I wanted to make it again for dinner the next night! To make the meal complete, I cooked up some brown basamati rice (any rice would work, but thats what we had in the pantry) and served it on the side with the zucchini.

Ponzu Sesame Seared Tuna
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 2 6-8 oz portions of sashimi grade tuna
• 2T toasted sesame oil
• 1T ponzu sauce
• 2t soy sauce
• 1T honey
• 2T brown sugar
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4c safflower oil, or vegetable oil
• fresh cracked pepper

Directions:

1. Whisk together sesame oil, ponzu, and soy sauce until combined. Add in honey, brown sugar, and minced garlic. Slowly whisk in safflower oil until all is combined. The important step now is to taste. If its too salty (as the ponzu/soy sauces tend to be quite salty), add more brown sugar. If its too sweet, add more ponzu. If its too strong, add more oil... Again, I did this all on a whim and added more of this and that until the flavor was what I wanted.
   
2. Pour marinade in a ziploc bag and add tuna steaks to the bag. Seal and set on the counter for 30 minutes. I say leavethis out at room temperature because the Tuna is seared rare, so to keep the center from being ice cold, I left mine out to at least try and keep it slightly warm.
3. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add a little safflower oil to the skillet and once oil is hot, add tuna steaks. It will spit and smoke.. and the sugars from the marinade may burn up in the skillet.. so be careful. Cook tuna about 2 minutes per side depending on how rare you like your tuna. I like mine pretty rare, so about 2 minutes per side does the trick. Remove from heat and let rest. While the tuna is marinating, you can cook your rice and make the zucchini side dish.

Zucchini & Sweet Onion Sautee
serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 large zucchini, sliced 1/2" slices then sliced in half (so they're like half moons)
  
• 1/2 sweet vidalia onion, sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1T soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• 1t toasted sesame oil
• 2t honey
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat vegetable oil with the toasted sesame oil over medium heat. Add onion and cook until starting to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Add soy sauce and continue to cook. Add honey. Once the zucchini gets close to being fully cooked, add in the garlic. (I like to add the garlic later so that it doesn't overcook or burn) Continue to cook about 5 minutes, so garlic has softened and zucchini is fully cooked.
   
2. Important step -- Taste! If its too salty, add a little more honey. Its important not to put too much soy sauce in the dish so not to overpower it. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm until Tuna is ready.

So there you have it - hopefully it comes close to what I created that night. It's very tasty and I intend to make this marinade again! Hope it comes out for you as well. Good luck and Enjoy!

Posted by lauren