Fresh Tuna with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Avocados

Dear Children, 

Your Aunt Janice brought a whole, frozen Albacore tuna from Seattle packed in her luggage.  This is such a Korean thing! Your aunts and grandma have traveled cross country with their bags packed with frozen fish of all types, dried squid, anchovies, seaweed, even kimchi, you name it!   When her luggage did not arrive at the Savannah Airport with her, we were more concerned about the fish than her clothes and make up.  Thankfully, the tuna was still quite frozen when we finally got the bag.  It made Grandma so happy to have some fresh tuna sashimi and we devoured rest with this yummy soy-ginger glaze, topped with avocados!  

Love, 

Mom

ps- heat the cast iron skillet to a smoking point and sear the tuna steaks on both sides for a few minutes and leave the center medium rare.  Sushi grade tuna like this shouldn't be cooked all the way. 

Fresh Tuna with Soy-Ginger Glaze and Avocados 

Soy-Ginger Glaze:

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves, finely chopped
1/2 jalapeno, sliced
2 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 garlic clove, grated
2 limes, juiced (about 4 tablespoons or 1/4 cup)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoon olive oil
Pinch sugar

For the tuna steak:

2 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 lb of  sushi-quality tuna, cut into steaks
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 ripe avocado, halved, peeled, pitted, and sliced
Extra cilantro for garnish

In a mixing bowl, combine the cilantro, jalapeños, ginger, garlic, lime juice, soy sauce, sugar, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Stir the ingredients together until well incorporated. Place a skillet over medium-high heat and coat with the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Season the tuna generously with salt and pepper. Lay the tuna in the hot oil and sear for 1 minute on each side to form a slight crust. Take steaks out and let them rest.

Pour soy-ginger mixture into the pan and cook for about a minute. Take the pan off the heat.  Put tuna steaks back in the pan.  Top with diced avocado and cilantro leaves.  Serve with rice.

Hobbes' Favorite Tuna Salad

 Bill Watterson

 My youngest loves a good tuna salad sandwich.  And he loves to read Calvin and Hobbes.  And being the youngest of four, he gets whatever he wants.  At least that's what my three older ones accuse me of.  

So when he begged for a stuffed Hobbes, I went searching online.  OK, maybe the older ones are right.  

Quickly I found out that a stuffed Hobbes can't be purchased anywhere, because Mr. Bill Watterson never liked the idea of commercializing his work.   So if you want to own a stuffed Hobbes, you gotta make it yourself.  

And here I found a great free pattern available online. Thanks to super creative Seamster, the instructions, complete with helpful step-by-step photos, were super-easy to follow, even for this novice sewer.  

The hardest part was hand sewing Hobbes' way-too-many stripes, but my youngest "hoorayed" and said things like, "Mom, you are the best sewer in the world!"  every time a stripe was sewn on.  With this kind of encouragement, I could have sewn the moon for this kid.  

Just like the real Calvin and Hobbes, these two are inseparable lately.  After only a few weeks,  Hobbes' white muzzle is already grey-brown, and his limbs are beginning to detach from being carried around so much.  And watching them share this tuna salad sandwich for lunch? Priceless.  

Print This Recipe!

Hobbes' Favorite Tuna Salad 

Makes 2 generous sandwiches

Recipe inspired from Cook's Country

2 (5 oz) cans solid white albacore tuna, packed in water

2 Tablespoon grated onion (great way to hide onion from kids)

1 Table Olive oil

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/4 Cup Hellmann's Mayonnaise

Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional ingredients: finely chopped celery, hard boiled eggs, fresh dill, or anything else that catches your fancy.

4 slices of bread

2 pieces of lettuce leaves  

Open two cans of tuna and drain water completely.  Transfer tuna into a medium size bowl and pat dry with a few sheets of paper towels.  

In a small microwave safe bowl, combine grated onion and olive oil and heat for 45 seconds.  Cool.  

Using a fork, toss onion mixture with tuna and add lemon juice and mayo.  Add any optional ingredients if using. Season well with salt and pepper.  

Assemble the sandwiches or use it to top a bed of greens.  

Note: Here is the link to canned tuna drainer that Pateberry mentioned in her comment.  Thanks Pateberry for this tip!