Cooking: Tonno Fresco

It's my second day of punishment for losing in Wii Bowling to Justyn. While we chowed down on leftovers from the night before (Chicken Fried Steak w/ Cheesy Grits), we talked about what he wanted for dinner. I really wanted, even craved, something healthier than last night and when we want to eat healthy, our go to meal is usually cous cous with salad mixed into it. Believe it or not, it does pack tons of flavor. As we discussed dinner, the talk of fish came up. I've been dying to try Jaden's (of SteamyKitchen.com) steamed fish with scallion and ginger. And I might actually do that tomorrow or Friday. I digress though, and Justyn thought of doing a Mediterranean fish with cous cous salad.

After lunch, he went back to work and I started researching different recipes that would be easy, fresh and healthy. It was easier than I thought, and before I knew it, I found this one.

Tonno Fresco Recipe:
http://www.great-chicago-italian-recipes.com/mediterranean_tuna.html

It suited my requirements, plus included a salad that sounded interesting. The salad included fennel in which I've only cooked with once before today. Perfect! I printed out the recipe and highlighted the ingrediants I would need to shop for.

After work, we went straight to Lunardis to get everything. Unfortunately, both of us needed to go pee really bad so we had to go to a nearby coffee shop to relieve ourselves. (Oh come on, you love that TMI) Ahh, much better. So we drive back to Lunardis and load up on groceries.

When I got home, I realized that I had forgotten to pick up some cous cous so we'd have some starch. I'm not on a low carb diet dammit! So, I had to go back in the nasty heat and haze (from the fire in Morgan Hill), to Lucky to get some. I also picked up some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. If you must know, I got myself the Cinnamon Bun flavor and Justyn got this Peach Cobbler stuff. I recommend you try the Cinnamon Bun flavor Ben & Jerry's (now 2 for $5!). It's delicious! And I don't even like ice cream.

Wow, I digressed again. Sorry about that! Onto the prep of the ingrediants. I read through the instructions and basically put all the ingrediants together that would be pan fried after I seared the tuna steaks. By the way, the tuna steaks were especially good looking. I just wanted to season and eat them raw.

I held back my desires and seasoned the steaks with salt after. Some butter and extra virgin olive oil went into a pan on medium heat. OK, confession time, I accidentally had the heat too high and almost burned the butter. Learning from Rachel Ray's mistakes, I took the pan off the heat and put it on a cold burner so I could get the steaks ready to sear along with my tongs handy.

I put the pan back on the heat on a much lower heat and seared the first side for two minutes. Then I flipped the the tuna steaks to sear the other side for another two minutes. They get taken out of the pan to sit while I saute some red chili flake, capers, shallot, garlic and lemon zest. Yeah, I know the recipe doesn't include lemon zest, but it would be a waste not to use it!

After everything sautes for a couple minutes you add some white wine and lemon juice. Let that mixture reduce for a bit and you're ready for dinner. OK, while things were sauteing, I quickly boiled some water, added butter to it and cooked my cous cous. Oh and I also prepared the salad part while I was prepping the rest of the ingrediants. Just follow the instructions in the recipe. You'll get all jumbled like I did if you use my method! Hehe.

So there you have it! To plate you basically spoon the reduced wine mixture over the fish, cous cous and salad and dinner's ready. I actually really impressed with this recipe due to its simplicity and great flavor. I'd give it a try if you're looking to eat something easy and healthy.