Sesame Crusted Tuna Tataki

Ingredients

To make my Sesame Crusted Tuna recipe, you only need simple, mostly store cupboard ingredients found at your average grocery store, but you do need good quality, fresh tuna so get the best you can afford.

• Tuna: Tuna steaks cut from the loin are the most suitable for tuna tataki. They are usually uniform in thickness, so they are great for slicing. Depending on where you are in the world, different varieties of tuna are available, though ahi tuna steaks or yellowfin tuna are the most popular. Fresh tuna should not smell at all fishy and should be a lovely pink to translucent red colour. Sushi grade tuna is usually just a marketing term – rare tuna is generally considered perfectly safe to consume.
• Sesame: The sesame crust elevates this dish, providing a lovely nutty crunchy texture in contrast to the juicy tuna flesh. I use a blend of sesame seeds – white sesame and black nigella look and taste fantastic.
• Soy Sauce: Soy sauce does double duty in this recipe! It helps the sesame seeds to stick to the tuna and makes a delicious dipping sauce. I use ordinary supermarket soy.
• Vinegar, Honey, Red Chilli, Ginger, Garlic and Lime: These ingredients are combined with the soy sauce to make the sweet, sour, and a little bit spicy dipping sauce for the tuna. I like to taste it and adjust the acidity or sweetness to suit my mood on the day. I use rice vinegar, but apple cider vinegar is perfectly fine too.
• Salad Leaves, Avocado, Cucumber and Coriander (Cilantro): I make a simple salad to go alongside this tuna, with ingredients commonly found in sushi – it pairs perfectly and rounds out the dish to a full meal along with some rice.
• Pickled Sushi Ginger: My secret ingredient! Adding pickled ginger to the salad gives this dish real oomph, and the liquid from the ginger jar makes a gloriously sweet and spicy salad dressing.
• Cooking Oil: Because this dish is cooked hot and fast, you need a cooking oil with a high smoke point. Olive oil is not suitable for this recipe.

Instructions

Seared Tuna cooks in a flash, so it’s crucial to get everything ready before you start cooking!

1. First, get the tuna out of the fridge so it can begin to warm up a little. Stir together all of the sauce ingredients and set aside.
2. Next, pat the tuna dry and brush all over with a little soy sauce. Combine sesame seeds and a little black pepper together and then press the tuna steaks into the sesame seed mixture firmly to coat on all sides. Set aside.
3. Cook your rice and prepare your salad, dressing it with a bit of liquid from the pickled ginger jar and a drizzle of oil if you like.
4. When everything is ready and the rice is cooked, heat 1-2 Tbsp of vegetable oil in a heavy-based pan or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot and shimmering, cook the tuna in the hot pan  for 1 minute on each side for rare (I recommend this, though you can cook it a tiny bit longer if you absolutely must – the level of doneness is of course, personal preference).
5. Allow the tuna to rest on a board for 1 minute, then slice thinly and serve immediately, drizzled with the dipping sauce and rice.