Grilled Tuna Mediterranean & I'm A Happy Man

As is often the case when Bev is out of town, I eat more fish – as I’ve said before, she likes only limited things.  I had a tuna steak in the freezer, which is way down on her list, so I went about looking for a recipe that matched up with ingredients I had on hand and found one at My Recipes for Tuna Mediterranean that sounded just perfect.  I used ¼ of the recipe below with changes in () for what I had on hand.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, undrained (I used a whole fresh one)

1/2 cup pitted green olives, such as Picholine (I had no green olives)

1/2 cup pitted black olives, such as kalamata or oil-cured (all I used)

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (I used dried)

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 (6-ounce) tuna steaks (I used one steak)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:

I cooked everything on the grill using the side burner for the sauce and grilled some Russet potato wedges oiled and dusted with Mediterranean seasonings. 

I followed the recipe instructions for the sauce and started it when the fish went on.

• Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 to 7 minutes or until tender and lightly browned. 
• Add tomatoes and olives, and cook, stirring, 3 to 4 minutes or until mixture is well blended and tomato juice has reduced slightly. 
• Remove from heat, and stir in thyme and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

I decided to do something different with the tuna and try the reverse sear method to see if I could achieve a more uniform cook across more of the middle without it still being rare.

I began by cooking the potatoes (about 10 minutes) over high heat until they had nice color then moved them over indirect heat along with the tuna which had just been sprinkled with salt and pepper – grill lid closed.  I flipped the tuna half way between the start temp and 100*.

When the tuna got to an internal temp of 100*, I moved it over direct high heat, flipped at 110*, and removed at 120*.

I transferred the tuna steak and now done potatoes to a plate and topped both with the tomato-olive mixture.

I thought all ingredients and meal were delicious, but my tuna was pink in the center rather than red – next time I’ll step it all back 10*.  I’d show my close up of the tuna inside but it would give you a headache from the blurriness. My goal was to achieve the amount (or less) of well-done as in this web shot while getting it a little more done in the middle - Since I got it too done, I'm not sure I achieved either goal.

The conclusion – tuna and beef cook differently and I probably already knew that :-), but I’ll have to try it one more time at the lower internal temp to decide if it’s worth the extra time to use the reverse sear.

Why a happy man you ask - My baby's back in town.

Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

4/10/13 meal date