This recipe was one of those that I have been thinking about making for awhile, but put it off for some reason! One of my favorite restaurants in Chicago was this place called Roy’s – it’s a chain (first location in Hawaii, I believe) – it has some of the best seafood I had while living there. My favorite dish on the menu was their wasabi tuna – it’s what I always ordered, always! It had the perfect wasabi flavor, not too much but just enough to give that slight burn but still taste amazing.

While living in Chicago, if I ever craved tuna – we’d either go out to sushi or to Roy’s. Now that we live in London I obviously have no problem finding good sushi places, but I’ve yet to find a place that does a Roy’s-type tuna steak! Don’t get me wrong, it’s London and I’m sure they exist, I just haven’t stumbled across one!

So, this tuna dish was born and I absolutely love it. It’ll be a go-to going forward now that I know how to prepare and cook tuna properly! I’m so excited to share this one with you!

Here’s how you make it (2 large servings):

1. Mix together 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp grated ginger and 1 tsp wasabi paste in a bowl
2. Add your 2 large tuna steaks to the mixture and toss to coat – let sit for 5 minutes and marinate
3. While the tuna is marinating, lay out a plate of sesame seeds (about 1/2 cup)
4. Add a few tsp oil to a pan and heat up, you want it on high heat since you are only searing the steaks briefly
5. Coat the tuna steak in sesame seeds and put one in the pan, it should sizzle when it hits the pan
6. Cook for 1-2 minutes on each side, depending on how rare you like your tuna, and remove
7. Repeat steps 4-6 for the second steak
8. Slice the tuna as thin as you like it and serve!

A few things to note:

• My tuna steak was a little less than 1 inch thick and I did 1.5 minutes on each side with a little extra sear on the sides – it was perfect for me, but fairly rare
• Always err on the rarer side – cook the fish, slice off a small piece to check how rare it still is and then you can always cook it a little more. You want to avoid overcooked tuna by all means possible!
• If wasabi isn’t your thing, omit it – taste won’t change dramatically
• If you want the presentation to look extra special, cut the steaks into a rectangular shape and then use the “extra” pieces as test runs to check your cooking technique. If you don’t really care to have perfectly sized pieces for serving purposes, don’t worry about this part!

I served mine with my Asian Edamame Avocado Quinoa along with my Japanese Carrot-Ginger Dressing – it was SUCH a great combination and I’d highly recommend it as a meal. It would also be great with a sticky sushi wasabi rice and sauteed bok choy – that’s how Roy’s always served it. I’m getting nostalgic now – Royyyyyyyyy’s!

Ingredients:

• 2 large tuna steaks, approx. 1-inch thick
• 2 tbsp soy sauce (or tamari)
• 1 tbsp grated ginger
• 1 tsp wasabi paste
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds (black/white mixture looks the prettiest)

Let me know what you think about this one. I would LOVE to see pics of how it turned out!

Cheers!

CHH