Sesame-crusted tuna carpaccio with cucumber-mooli salad (IMBB 5)

IMBB is when a bunch of culinarily gifted people get together to cook. And they don't even have to live on the same continent, let alone the same country. "Is my blog burning" is an initiative to get owners of foodblogs to work on an assignment and post a contribution on their site on a given date. It was started by Alberto of "Il Forno" , with the first assignment being to cook up a soup. Tartines, cakes and bowls of rice followed suite. This month's IMBB event is hosted in Asia, by Wena of ::mum:mum:: and she asked to create anything involving fish. Having missed out on all the previous ones, this is my very first entry and as I couldn't decide what to make, we have just spent a week eating fish in various shapes and forms. Yum! So more recipes are to follow shortly, watch this spot!
The following recipe is a creation where I have been mixing and matching flavours quite a bit. I took prime-quality tuna loin, rolled it in sesame and nigella seeds, a flavour I have rediscovered lately (see my post "Skate in alu with rocket and fennel salad") then seared it in a pan for just 20 seconds on each side. I cut the fish up very thinly and topped it with a salad made of cucumber and mooli and dressed the lot with a marinade of wasabi, sesame oil and soy sauce. Eating this dish means discovering a new interesting flavour at every bite - for me, nigella seeds are intrinsically linked with Turkish bread, the mooli/white radish brings memories of beer-fests in Bavaria, Mexico is where I first discovered coriander and the Asian condiments wasabi and soy sauce make this dish a truly international affair, as befits this great IMBB initiative...

Sesame-crusted tuna carpaccio with cucumber-mooli salad
(serves 3 as a dinner and 6 as a starter)

500 g tuna loin (in one piece)
20 g white sesame seeds
10 g nigella seeds(black onion)
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

For the salad:
6 spring onions
150 g mooli (daikon or white radish)
150 g cucumber

For the dressing:
1 tbsp sesame oil
3 tbsp brown rice vinegar
3 tbsp tamari soy sauce
1 tsp (or more) wasabi paste

Combine the seeds, salt and pepper in a bowl and firmly roll the tuna loin in it. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the fish on all sides, for ca. 20 seconds each, just enough to cook no more than 1 cm all around. Set aside and leave to rest until cooled.
In the meantime, slice/shred all the ingredients for the salad very finely and prepare the dressing by combining all the ingredients in a bowl. Add to the salad mixture.
When the fish has cooled, transfer to a cutting board and cut into 5 mm slices. You will need a very sharp knife. Spread the slices on the individual serving plates, place a pile of the salad in the middle and spoon the remaining dressing over the fish. Sprinkle some of the remaining seeds over for decoration, if you wish.

 

Comments

[Theresa]

Congratulations on your first entry! This is unusual and brilliant, I love the way tuna tastes as good as steak and what a good idea to make carpaccio out of it! Tuna steak is so rare here so I'm enjoying your tuna carpaccios vicariously. Or should I say, voraciously vicariously!

[Wena]

wow! now that's so tempting. notti gal to tempt wena with good food. hee hee!

anyway, i hope to see the remainder of the other fish meals that you had! the ones that are mentioned in this posting that is. :)

[Pascale]

Hi Jo,
I've discovered your blog when Alberto talk about it and I love it. Your tuna looks very good and I might try it soon. I've cooked tuna too for the IMBB.
Have a good day.

[Reid]

Wonderful looking dish! I think this is something that I need to try! =)

[Renee]

hi Jo,
I love seared tuna, and yours look gorgeous! thanks for sharing : )

[sophie]

Two things- firstly, in the photo it looks like you've used carrot or something with a slight orange hue, which doesn't look like daikon- a trick of the light or the brownish marinade? And secondly, where do you get sashimi grade fish in....I've gathered you live in North-ish London? There's always Piccadilly's Japan Centre, but that's erratic, and other?

[Mark Baker]

This was really good. I didn't have nigella seeds so I added fennel seeds instead and it worked out great. Nice salad too.