Grilled Tuna with Tomato-Cilantro Salsa

Hello again! It has been awhile since I last posted a blog. It seems Eddie and I like to make life changing decisions with usually only a few days of consideration. Our latest decision... get a new house built, sell our current house and move in with our in-laws until the new house is finished. Yeah, we made this decision after discussing it for about... oh 2 days! So, needless to say the past month has been a little hectic. However, the new house is going to be awesome and despite a crappy housing market, we sold on house in 10 days! Now we are fantically packing up our house because we are moving a lot sooner than originally planned. Hence... I haven't had a lot of time to take pictures for the blog and, we have been eating a lot pizza.

However, last night I was determined to make something new and delicious for dinner. After thumbing through a few magainzes I found a great recipe in the September issue of Food & Wine that would use up two tuna steaks that were in the freezer (as part of the move I am trying to clean out the freezer).

I was able to throw this grilled tuna recipe together in the time it took to heat up the grill and cook the tuna ... no more than 15 minutes. And, it is a fantastic way to use up the tomatoes that are overflowing on my counter. I did make a few changes to the recipe, so the one below relects exactly what I did.

Eddie was a big fan too. He declared it a "definite make again" meal.

Please excuse the lousy picture. As Eddie likes to say "Babe, you are a wonderful cook but a horrible photographer."


Grilled Tuna with Tomato-Cilantro Salsa
Serves 2

1 pound tomatoes, quartered
3 scallions, chopped
1 cup lightly packed cilantro leaves
1/3 cup mint leaves
1 jalapeno pepper, halved (leave the seeds in for more heat)
1 tbs. fresh lemon juice
1 tbs. fresh lime juice
1 tbs. olive oil
Salt and Pepper
2 6-oz. tuna steaks

1. Heat the grill on high.
2. In the food processor, combine tomatoes, scallions, cilantro, mint, and jalapeno. Pulse for 15-30 seconds in 2 second intervals (2 seconds on, 2 seconds off). Process until you have a nice looking salsa. Do not purify.
3. Transfer salsa to a bowl. Stir in lemon juice, lime juice, and olive oil.
4. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

5. Coat tuna steaks with oil (Don't worry most will grill off)
6. Season tuna with salt and pepper on both sides. Be generous, a lot will stick to the grill.
7. Grill tuna on high heat about 2-3 minutes per side. Do not overcook! You want the tuna to be still pink in the middle.*
8. Remove tuna steaks from grill. Let rest 3 minutes.
9. Cut steaks onto 1/4 thick pieces.
10. To plate: Put a few tablespoons of salsa on a plate, fan out tuna slices on top of salsa. Top with a little more salsa.

* Personal Rant: Nothing is worse than overcooked tuna. Please, please only cook the tuna medium. There should be some pink left in the middle. If you like it cooked all the way through then don't waste your money on fresh tuna... you might as well eat the canned stuff... or eat chicken! Okay, peronsal rant finished.