I love to love Le Bernardin Cookbook by Eric Ripert. Love. The recipes rarely call for exotic ingredients, and more to the point, never 50 different ingredients for a single entree. This modified tuna tartare recipe was my go-to move as a single chic. It looks impressive, tastes exciting, and it’s easy, not to mention South Beach Diet friendly. I’m serving it these days with endive petals instead of homemade potato chips. The trick with endive is removing the bottom core and standing the endive upright in a bowl of sugar. Somehow the sugar draws out the bitterness—if only that worked on people.
Asian Tuna Tartare
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon peeled and finely diced fresh ginger
- ¼ cup corn oil (Personally, I use avocado oil)
- 1 pound sushi-quality tuna (previously frozen tuna)
- 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons thinly sliced fresh coriander
- ½ teaspoon seeded and finely diced jalapeno
- ¾ teaspoon wasabi powder
- ½ teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon finely diced scallions (from white and light green parts only)
- 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, plus ½ lemon
- Fine sea salt, to taste
- Freshly ground white pepper, to taste
- 1 ripe  tomato, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/8-inch dice
- 20 best quality potato chips
- Round mold or open-ended cookie cutter, 2¼ inches in diameter and 1½ inches high
STEPS
- Combine the ginger and com or avocado oil in a small bowl, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Strain. (Or if you have no time for overnight, don’t bother straining)
- Trim any blood or pieces of nerve from the tuna. Cut into tiny dice (no bigger than 1/8 inch). Put the tuna in a mixing bowl. (The recipe can be made to this point up to 5 hours ahead; cover and refrigerate the tuna.)
- No more than 15 minutes before serving, add 1 tablespoon of coriander to the tuna, along with the jalapeño, wasabi, sesame seeds, scallion, 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and 4 teaspoons of the ginger oil. Mix gently. Season with salt and pepper.
- Place the mold in the center of a salad plate. Fill the mold with the tuna mixture, pressing it gently so the tuna is even and compact. Lift off the mold. Repeat, making 3 more plates.
- Drizzle the remaining oil on the plates around the tartare. Sprinkle the tomato over the oil, then sprinkle the remaining coriander over the tomato. Squeeze a little lemon juice over the garnishes. Stand 5 potato chips up on their edges in each tartare, arranging them in a circle. Serve immediately.
A YEAR AGO: A Day in the Wife
5 YEARS AGO: The Land of Nod
