Confession- I love tuna but rarely cook it.  And by rarely I mean I think I have cooked it like twice.  I am not sure why it intimidates me but it does.  Well,  my dad made this tuna for me this weekend while I was home visiting and it was amazing.  It made me realize tuna is so easy to cook and I should cook with it more often.  It only takes a few minutes to cook and it is so tasty.  We didn’t have all the ingredients to make the dipping sauce, so we instead used Trader Joe’s Spicy Peanut Dressing which was excellent with the tuna.   This dressing is seriously delish, I think it would be great on any meat or a salad.  I highly recommend, another great Trader Joes buy.

Next time I make the tuna though I will definitely be making the Ginger-Carrot dressing. I think the flavors would pair well with the tuna.  Also I won’t cook my tuna quite as long as my dad did.  He cooked it several minutes per side and it was more done than I like my tuna- but you know how rents can be about their meat.  The tuna really just needs to be seared if you buy Sashami grade.   This was a super easy meal for a weeknight meal.  Enjoy!

SESAME SEARED TUNA WITH GINGER CARROT DIPPING SAUCE

Ingredients

• For the Dipping Sauce

  • 2 tablespoons mirin
  • 2 teaspoons white miso
  • 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
  • 1/3 cup carrot juice
  • 2 tablespoons fresh orange juice
  • 2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons distilled white vinegar
  • 1/8 teaspoon red-pepper flakes
  • 1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
  • 1 scallion, green part only, thinly sliced

• For the Tuna

  • 3 tablespoons unhulled white sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon unhulled black sesame seeds
  • 1 pound sushi-grade yellowfin tuna, cut into 4-ounce rectangular pieces
  • 1 tablespoon safflower oil

Directions

1. Make the dipping sauce: Combine mirin, miso, ginger, carrot juice, orange juice, soy sauce, vinegar, red-pepper flakes, and sesame oil in a small bowl, whisking until miso dissolves. Sprinkle with sliced scallion.
2. Make the tuna: Combine sesame seeds in a shallow dish. Press tuna pieces into seeds, turning to coat each side. Heat oil in a medium saute pan over medium-high heat. Add tuna, and cook each side until white seeds are golden, about 20 seconds per side. Transfer tuna to a paper-towel-lined plate for 1 minute, then cut each piece into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Serve with dipping sauce.

TOP PHOTO AND RECIPE VIA MARTHA STEWART

Side Note- I did not write this whole post in capital letters or in bold.  My blogger is being so wonky this morning!  and I am too tired and computer illiterate to figure it out!