Our annual survey of seafood in Southeast Louisiana this year counts down the 33 best seafood species enjoyed in our restaurants, seafood markets, and homes. For the full survey so far, click here. Or use the links at the bottom to move up and down the list.
#09: Yellowfin Tuna
In New Orleans, fresh tuna went from unavailable to favorite in about three years. That was in the early 1980s. Before then, if you asked for or were offered tuna, you meant tuna from a can. The fresh was just not available. (We had no sushi bars then, either.)
Tuna is obviously different from most other fish we eat. It's never seen in fillet form--always in steaks. Its color spectrum is shades of deep red. It has the texture of meat, with flakes so big that sometimes a large piece of the fish shows no flake structure at all.
Most of the fresh tuna we eat is yellowfin tuna from the Gulf of Mexico. It's also known by its Japanese name ahi. In stores, it's often marked "sushi grade." There is no official sushi grade, so you can ignore that. The best cuts of tuna come from well forward on the fish, and far away from the dark bloodline areas.
The rules of tuna cookery differ as much from those for other fish as its appearance. Tuna is the most popular species of fish eaten raw, or nearly raw. It's easier to accept than other raw fish, for some reason. Even outside of the sushi world, rare seared tuna is the standard style.
During a legislative hearing on the disappearance of redfish in the early 1980s, Chef Paul Prudhomme said that tuna was a much better fish to blacken than redfish. He's right. It's also true that no way of cooking tuna is better than blackening. What comes out is something that looks likes, feels like, and almost tastes like a beefsteak.
Which is the key to tuna: cook it like you'd cook meat. Methods of preparation, sauces and garnishes that work well with a steak probably will be equally rewarding for tuna.
I'd like to make another suggestion to cookers of tuna, both at home and in restaurants. Instead of cutting it into the standard three-quarter-inch-thick steaks, how about reducing the width and increasing the thickness? The best tuna dishes I ever had involved what amounted to blocks, rather than slices, of tuna.
Unacceptable Alternative: Gulf bluefin tuna is the species you hear selling for thousands of dollars per fish, with the buyers often as not being Japanese. Bluefin tunas weigh hundreds of pounds, putting it at the top of the ocean food chain. It is among the fastest fish in the ocean. On the table, bluefin tuna is an amazing thing to behold. It's solid meat, with an amazing silky texture and a vivid flavor. Sashimi style is the way to go. No rice, no searing, none of that. Raw, all by itself. The fatty belly of bluefin tuna (known in sushi bars as toro melts in your mouth, leaving an amazing creamy sensation.
It's a little too desirable, frankly. Even at the very high prices (or perhaps because of them), bluefin tuna has been overfished. I personally cannot eat bluefin tuna with a clear conscience anymore. You won't encounter it often. It's time to put the brakes on this fishery until populations recover.
Char-Grilled Tuna
I can sum up my approach to tuna simply: I treat it as if it were a steak. When I’m finished with it in this recipe, it even looks like a steak. The exterior is crusty and dark brown to black, and the inside is red and juicy. It's almost (but not quite) blackened. Take it off the grill at the first moment you wonder whether it's done. It will be perfect then. The idea side dish for this is--believe it or not--red beans and rice.
- 1/2 stick melted (but not hot) butter
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 4 tuna steaks, 8-10 oz. each; the thicker, the better
- 3 Tbs. salt-free Creole seasoning
- 1 1/2 tsp. salt.
- 1/2 tsp. ground anise seed
1. Heat the grill as hot as you can get it. Meanwhile, mix the melted butter, lemon juice, and Worcestershire sauce, and brush the tuna with the mixture.
2. Mix the Creole seasoning, salt, and ground anise. Sprinkle generously all over the tuna on both sides. Use all the seasoning.
3. Grill the tuna for about ninety seconds per side (or less) over the hottest part of the grill. Beware of flames! Turn it once with tongs or a metal spatula (no forks, please).
Serves four.
