Friday Night Food Porn

The $80 Tuna Fish Sandwich

At the Snowshoe last weekend I decided to try a seared tuna for the fish category. Weeks in advance I was talking with my fish monger about ordering a sushi grade tuna loin. He said he could get it for me but I would have to buy a good size chunk. No biggie, I thought, so I ordered it to be picked up the Friday night before the Snowshoe. I picked up my tuna that Friday night and on the way out the door my fish guy jokingly says 'Mike, don't overcook the tuna!' It's a week later and that phrase still rings in my head...

On Saturday morning I took that beautiful tuna loin and cut four 1" steaks from it. Two of them went into a marinade of ponzu, fresh ginger, and fresh garlic. The other two went back on ice and into the cooler. At 11:35 I took the two steaks out of the marinade and seared them for two minutes a side on a hot charcoal grill, just like I had done many times before. Only this time I was using sushi grade tuna, which cooks much faster than premium grade tuna. Something I wish I had known ahead of time. I'm sure you figured out by now...I over cooked the tuna! At 11:50 I sliced into that tuna and almost cried. Then Kris said 'don't worry about it, cook another one, we have time.' So I grabbed another tuna steak from the cooler, tossed it on the grill with some ponzu and fresh pepper. Cooked it for one minute a side, sliced it, re seasoned it, and put it in the box. That tuna was cooked perfect; seared on the outside and rare in the middle. The judges hated it...well, 2 judges hated it, 2 loved it, and 2 thought it was average.

When we were packing up at the end of the day I was going to toss the overcooked tuna in the trash, but my friend Lisa talked me out of it. She said 'that would make an awesome tuna fish sandwich!'

So, on Sunday I took the over cooked tuna, seasoned it with salt, pepper, celery seed, and mixed it all together with some mayo.


Served it on toasted whole wheat with pickles, home pickled red onions, and a handful of chips on the side. Lisa was right...it made an awesome tuna fish sandwich!