Fish Wednesday: Cheap Tuna Edition

While I might be a sucker for a deal, I’m picky as hell. That’s why I sorted through all the packages of tuna in the seafood case before settling on one that was good enough for me. I like tuna steaks to have a nice dense reddish color to them, I don’t like the washed out pink ones. There is no good reason for this other than that I think it’s a better color. I somehow believe that a pale pink tuna is not going to taste as good as a deep, rich, reddish tuna. I am probably wrong about this – a quick check of buying tips says that yes, your fresh tuna can be pale pink. It should not be brown or uneven in color and it should not have any kind of rainbow sheen on the surface, but pink? That’s fine.

The tuna was something like six bucks a pound, a screaming deal considering the same amount of salmon will set you back the price of a tank of gas, no small change these days. I love salmon, of course, but when it’s sitting next to fresh, thickly sliced tuna steaks that are a bargain, to boot, there’s no contest.

I marinated the steaks in sesame oil, soy sauce, wasabi, and a splash of rice vinegar. They went on a very hot grill, which I promptly turned down to low. I basted the fish with the remaining sauce and turned them three times, about once every five minutes. They were gorgeous, marked up with those grill marks that make it look like you know what you’re doing.

Folks who are meat eaters compare tuna to a nice cut of beef steak. I don’t like red meat at all; I’m a “pescatarian” by dietary preference, not by politics, though if you’ve been reading Nerd’s Eye View for any length of time you know I worry about sustainablity when it comes to my food. I won’t argue the beef/tuna comparison, but I will tell you that I like my tuna just this side of done. A properly cooked tuna steak can hold up to being well done without getting dried out – I can say that our well done tuna was not the least bit dry, though it did have quite the meaty texture.

We have a big piece leftover that we’ll eat for lunch tomorrow, I think I’ll sprinkle it with furikake and a tiny bit more wasabi powder before eating it cold. As always, yum. And eat your fish, it’s good for you.

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Further props to Coleman for their customer service, by the way. One of my grill plates is losing the enamel – Coleman responded to my inquiry, pronto, and is shipping new ones my way. If you’re on the fence about getting a gas grill because you don’t want a huge device in your yard, well, I believe I’ve mentioned I really like mine. And I have zero regrets over saying goodbye to charcoal, I adore the convenience of gas.