Seared Tuna with a Ginger Soy Sauce

As with all meat, the quality of fish really determines the dish. That's not to say you can't still ruin a good piece of fish, but you can only elevate a bad piece of fish so far.

To begin this dish heat two pans on the stove with a small amount of oil in each and heat to medium high.

What you see above is a piece of yellowtail tuna. I took one steak, rubbed it in olive oil and some lime juice, added a smidge of salt and cracked pepper and let it sit for fifteen minutes.

While the fish was getting acquainted with the lime, I prepped the rest of the food, which meant I thinly sliced ginger, red onions, red peppers, garlic, and snapped green beans. Place the green beans in a bowl and set aside. As I set the fish to sear on medium high I started the red onions in another pan to melt down, after about five minutes I flipped the fish and in pan #2 added the red pepper. At this point I started a pot of water on the back eye to boil. You should have a few extra minutes here, take this time to make a small cornstarch slurry. You'll need it later.

When the second side of the fish was seared, I took that out and threw the ginger in the pan to begin to crisp up. The water should be boiling at this point, pour the boiling water over the green beans to give them a nice blanch. Throw the garlic into pan #1, and begin to add your flavors of choice to the pan sauce. I went with a touch of white wine and soy. Drain the green beans and add them to pan #2, give it all a good stir, and turn it down to low.

Back to your soy ginger sauce, turn it down to low and add in the slurry. Mix it all in very well. While that is cooking down you can begin plating your food. The cornstarch should be absorbing and bringing a nice consistency to the sauce. Ideally you want some viscoscitiy but not that much thickness. It's a potent flavor and you don't want it to overwhelm everything else on the plate. When you deem the sauce perfect, add and serve! I dressed with a touch of fresh cilantro to round out the flavors.

Ribeye with a Pepper Tomatillo Sauce

Pretty isn't it!

Tomatillo Pepper Sauce

Roast in the oven (the grill is preferred but sometimes you can't do anything about the rain) until the exterior begins to blacken and char. Roast whatever you have on hand, in this case I did:
5 tomatillos
2 long sweet peppers
1 spicy pepper
2 little green peppers (yes I know it'd be easier if I knew what anything was)
1 yellow bell pepper
2 tomatoes

Turn when they've begun to blacken to get a nice rounded char all over. Then place into sealed plastic containers to cool and hopefully sweat off their skins. After enough time has passed and they're cool enough to touch (15 minutes is enough) peel it off. After peeling, throw everything into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth, then put into a pot on the stove to cook down into a thick sauce. Meanwhile, blend some cilantro and lime juice, I did maybe a quarter cup of cilantro and the juice from two limes, and set aside.

After the sauce has cooked down to a nice consistency, remove from the stove and stir in the lime and cilantro. I don't like to cook these two ingredients with it because I find it loses a lot of the fresh zing they add to the flavor.

The rice is basic basmati, cooked in a homemade chicken stock, with no additional butter and salt, and it absolutely did not need it. Light, fluffy and flavorful. The ribeye was leftover from an earlier meal, thinly sliced and voila! You have a meal!