Grilled Fennel Spice Tuna with Tomatoes and Eggplant

1 baby eggplant

2 tomatoes

2 tablespoons fennel seed

1 ahi tuna steak

1/2 cup chicken stock

1 big strip lemon peel

1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon sour cream

olive oil

salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 350. Cover a cookie sheet with foil and cut the eggplant in half. Season eggplant with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Place face down on the cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.

While the eggplant is in the oven, cut the tomatoes in half, toss them in olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Set these aside.

Toast the fennel seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat just until they become fragrant, took about 1 minute for me.

Grind the fennel in a mortar and if you don’t have one, you can use a freezer bag and a rolling pin. Put the seeds in a freezer bag and roll over several times.

Brush olive oil onto the tuna steak and add ground fennel. Cover and refrigerate until ready to grill (this is when I start my grill after I brush the grates with olive oil).

Time to make the sauce. Cook the chicken stock with the lemon peel over medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Take the pan off the heat and remove the lemon peel. Transfer the stock to a blender and add paprika and sour cream.

Blend sauce until it is foamy.

Time to remove the eggplant from the oven and let the rest.

Take the tuna steak and place on the grill.

Grill the tuna until medium-rare, about 2 minutes per side. Remove the tuna from the grill and let rest.

Grill the tomatoes and eggplant until slight charred.

Put the grilled tomatoes and eggplant into a bowl and pour some of the sauce on them.

Time to plate! I didn’t chop the tomatoes or eggplant which you could do. Here is how I did my plate and I used some of the warm sauce over the tuna.

Here is a close-up:

Now you have a dinner for one and I ate every bite.

Tomorrow there won’t be a post due to a dinner I am attending with my neighbors. I will have a post on Thursday.

Happy Coooking!

Grilled Ahi Tuna with Wasabi Vinaigrette

1 Ahi tuna steak

sesame oil

salt and pepper

2 avocados, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced

1 bag of sweet butter salad mix

handful of vine tomatoes cut int half

Preheat the grill and brush tuna with oil season.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper on both sides.

Grill tuna on high heat for one minute on each side and obtain grill marks (since Jen is not a fan raw tuna I cooked each side for 2 minutes).

Remove from the grill and let rest for several minutes.

While the tuna is resting time to make the Wasabi Vinaigrette.

Wasabi Vinaigrette

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 teaspoons wasabi horseradish

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper

Whisk all ingredients.

It should look like this:

Slice the tuna:

Plate with salad, tomatoes, tuna and drizzle dressing.

Happy Cooking!