Happy days….a great catch of Yellowfin Tuna
Lucky, is how I feel. I live in a beautiful part of Australia, Byron Bay but to add to it I have an amazingly passionate fishmonger.
Meet Freckle, your friendly fishmonger.
Meet Freckle (yes he has freckles) your friendly, camera shy, mad fishmonger. Mad, because I don’t think he ever sleeps, as the boats call him at all times of the night letting him know they have a catch. Without fail he gets up and will drive up to 8 hours north to meet the boat, mad!
But I am not complaining, because the seafood in his shop is sublime. There is a lot of locally caught fish in his shop, I have had a whole snapper that was caught that morning. So when I saw the haul of tuna I couldn’t resist but to buy a few steaks and throw them on the chargrill. This recipe uses a teriyaki marinade, so make sure you wipe the marinade off the tuna before cooking otherwise it will stick and burn quickly. Enjoy!
Mouth-watering side of tuna…yum!
Chargrilled tuna steaks with cucumber vermicelli and noodles
Serves 4
4 x 180gm tuna steaks (or swordfish, snapper, blue-eye or any firm fillets)
4 tablespoons teriyaki marinade (recipe follows)
1 packet Green tea or Soba noodles
2 telegraph cucumbers, washed
4 green onions, finely sliced
Dressing
1/4 cup Shaoxhing wine (Chinese cooking wine)
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons palm sugar
Teriyaki marinade
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/3 cup dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon mirin
1 tablespoon caster sugar
To make the marinade, combine all the ingredients in a glass or ceramic container and stir until sugar has dissolved. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the marinade to serve. Place the tuna steaks into the marinade, set aside.
Use a mandolin to slice the cucumbers into thin long strips (like vermicelli noodles) working around the seeds, or use a knife to cut into thin strips. To make the dressing, in a large bowl, combine wine, fish sauce and sugar and stir until sugar has dissolved. Cook the noodles as per packet instructions. Drain and add to the dressing with the strips of cucumber. Toss well.
Heat the chargrill on a high heat. Remove the tuna from the bowl and wipe off the marinade. Lightly brush the tuna steaks with oil and cook 1 minute each side for a pink centre, or longer if you prefer.
Divide the prepared noodles and cucumber onto serving plates and place the cooked tuna on top and drizzle with reserved marinade and sprinkle over the green onions and serve.
