We are boaters & have a freezer full of fresh tuna steaks. I get so sick of them it's hard to imagine being able to do much to dress them up but I'm sure you'll get lots of yummy suggestions.

I usually just grill & serve with a salsa of some sort...mango/papaya, onion, cilantro, jalepeno, etc. since I refuse to eat mayo that eliminates many of the more common sauces/toppings. Since we eat most of them in the summer months & its hot/humid, I normally just put the grilled tuna steak on top of a huge, mixed green salad that includes fruit, walnuts/almonds, red onion, and whatever else is laying around. No dressing other than the salsa. If not on a salad, I make rice.

/tricia (who doesn't like tuna & perennially hopes DH doesn't buy a tuna permit)

Yum! I've got lots of fresh tuna in my freezer.
Here's a couple of ways to prepare:

1. Wrap with a slice of bacon and grill.
2. Sprinkle with lemon pepper (or seasoning of your choice) and bake.
3. Use the leftover baked tuna in a traditional tuna casserole....wonderful with frozen peas.
4. Tuna sandwiches from leftovers.

Mine are filets that I slice across the grain, but any cut could be used. Keep it simple and enjoy the fresh flavor. It's hard to go back to canned...

I like to serve with roasted veggies (aspargus, broccoli) and buttered or parmesean noodles. The flavor is distinct, but rather delicate so keep the sides light.

Deanna

Well, they've rec'd great reviews from more than one on the forum - I haven't tried these yet, but plan to.

Tuna Sates with Wasabi Mayo - arabellamiller
1 1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
juice of one lemon
5 Tablespoons wasabi paste (green horseradish paste), or to taste
4 12-ounce tuna steak, cut into 1-inch cubes
Stir all ingredients together. Put tuna cubes in a bowl and cover with 1 cup (or more, if needed) of the wasabi mixture. Marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Put remaining wasabi mixture in a bowl for dipping and refrigerate overnight.
Either sear tuna in a very hot pan with olive oil, just a minute each side, or stick it on a prepared skewer and grill over very hot coals for a few minutes each side. Serve tuna sat with chilled wasabi mayo for dipping.
You can cut this recipe in half for a smaller group.

Oh, yum! Can't wait to try this now!
Thanks everyone.

When I see them prepared on the food channel, the steaks almost look raw on the inside. Are they supposed to be cooked really rare?

One of my wife's all-time favorites. Heavy but delicious, admitedly overpowers the tuna a bit. Omit the cilantro if you'd like, I sometimes do.

pan-seared tuna with ginger-shiitake cream sauce
Bon Appétit : February 1999

Servings: Serves 6.

Ingredients6 6-ounce tuna steaks, each about 1 inch thick
2 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
4 garlic cloves, chopped
8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
Lime wedges (optional)
Fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)

PreparationPreheat oven to 200°F. Sprinkle 1 side of tuna steaks with pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Place tuna steaks, pepper side down, in hot oil and sear 2 minutes. Turn tuna over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 2 minutes for rare. Transfer tuna to rimmed baking sheet; keep warm in oven.
Add butter, sliced green onions, cilantro, ginger and chopped garlic to same skillet and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in mushrooms and soy sauce and simmer 30 seconds. Add whipping cream and simmer until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Spoon sauce onto plates; arrange tuna atop sauce. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Yes, grill them rare as you would a beef steak. Tuna is a very firm and very low fat fish, so it can be dry if cooked to a well done stage.

FYI- it is one of my favorites and tastes nothing like the cat food you get in a can.

We love them here! We usually grill them with one of our favorite sauces:

Grilled Tuna
Source: Adapted from Cooks Illustrated 5/1998
It is difficult to avoid cooking tuna steaks thinner than 3/4-inch to medium because the interior cooks almost as quickly as the surface. For 3/4-inch steaks, follow steps 1-3; for 1 to 1 1/2 inch tuna steaks, use variation described in steps 4 - 6. Piquant sauces and fresh salsas are natural partners for either thin or thick grilled tuna steaks

4 tuna steaks (about 8 ounces each)
3 T extra-virgin olive oil
table salt and ground black pepper

1. For 3/4-inch Tuna Steaks: Place tuna and oil in gallon-sized zipper-lock plastic bag; seal bag and refrigerate until fish has marinated fully, at least 1 and up to 24 hours.
2. Preheat grill.
3. Remove tuna from bag; season both sides of each steak with salt and pepper. Grill over direct heat until well seared and grill marks appear, about 1 1/2 minutes. Flip steaks over and grill on second side until fish is cooked to medium (opaque throughout, yet translucent at very center when checked with point of paring knife), 1 to 1 1/2 minutes longer. Serve immediately.

4. For 1- to 1 1/2-inch Tuna Steaks: Whereas thinner tuna steaks cook to medium before you know it, thicker 1- to 1 1/2-inch steaks can easily be cooked to rare or medium-rare. In addition, you need only to brush thick steaks with olive oil rather than to marinate them, because they are less likely to dry out during cooking.
5. Preheat grill.
6. Brush both sides of each tuna steak with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill steaks 2 1/2 minutes on first side and 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 minutes on second side for rare (opaque near surfaces and still red and translucent at center when checked with point of paring knife) or 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on first side and 3 to 4 minutes on second side for medium-rare (just opaque throughout, yet still pink at very center when checked with point of paring knife); serve immediately.
Serves 4

Sauces to serve with grilled tuna steaks:

Wasabi Butter Sauce (adapted from about.com)
1 1/4 cup white wine
2 T white wine vinegar
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tablespoon wasabi paste, or to taste
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 cup butter, cubed

Combine wine, wine vinegar and shallots in a saucepan over medium heat. Simmer to reduce to about 2 tablespoons. Strain out the shallots and discard. Add wasabi and soy sauce to mixture and reduce the heat.
Slowly add butter while stirring until completely mixed, remove from heat. Set aside.

Wasabi Mayo
1 tsp wasabi paste
1 T rice vinegar or lemon juice
2 T mayonnaise
1 green onion, minced

Peach Relish (adapted from Cooks.com)
1 red pepper, seeded, sliced in strips
6 firm ripe nectarine or peaches, chopped or sliced
1 med. red onion, chopped or sliced
1 tsp. minced garlic
1/4 cup fresh basil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
2 T lime juice
1/4 cup olive oil

Combine ingredients, keep chilled until ready to serve.

Cindy

OK, the Portuguese one got to me. I've got to see what the tuna steaks look like in the grocery this week. That sounds delicious.

Cooking tuna, IMO, the more rare, the better. Which is why freshness is so important.

Tuna steaks are much better if they haven't been frozen, IMO. I often make a marinade with

fresh ginger (or ginger paste)
minced garlic
soy sauce
black rice vinegar
lime juice
sesame oil

I don't measure these - I just do it to taste, but I make a fair amount of marinade. For the soy sauce, I use half light soy sauce and half salt-free soy sauce, to cut down on the salt. I don't like the salt-free by itself, however. I marinate the steaks in a plastic bag for no more than one hour, and reserve the marinade. I grill the steaks at medium high heat for 3 minutes a side (depending on thickness), during which time I put the marinade in a pyrex measuring cup with 1-2 tsp potato starch and microwave it until it thickens, stirring half way through. This makes a quick and easy teriyaki sauce. You could add a pinch of sugar to the marinade, but I generally don't.

Alternatively, I rub the steaks with olive oil and season both sides with my Cajun Seasoning Mix and grill. This I usually serve with tartar sauce.

Lars

Here is a link that might be useful: Lars' Cajun Seasoning Mix

This is actually one of the easiest dinners to prepare. BTW IMO, Tuna is much better rare than cooked, but even restaurants often over cook it. So we always try to get steaks that are over 1" thick and preferably closer to 1-1/2" thick.

I usually buy enough so that I can trim the steaks into squares or rectangles and then chop the left over trim into small cubes. From there, I will make a marinade very similar to Publickman's above. For our tastes, I finely grate the ginger and only use a very little lime juice as it can overwhelm. The rest is done to our taste. The only thing I add to it is very thinly sliced green onion - more for show than taste. Once the marinade is done, I'll combine it with the tuna cubes and VOILA! - Tuna Tatare. Place it in the refrigerator for about an hour before serving it as an appetizer. I add a little more of the green onion before serving just for show. You can save it for the next day - though that usually doesn't happen at our house.

For cooking the tuna, I highly recommend you take it out of the fridge about an hour ahead of time and let it get rid of the chill. Rinse the Tuna and pat dry. For my wife and son, I'll season each side heavily with Paul Prudhomme seafood magic. For mine I'll just use some good ground India pepper and salt. Place about 2 Tbs of EVOO in a skillet over medium to medium high heat (this is where experience pays dividends) and saute for about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes per side. Assuming you have an 7-8 oz. steak, you can check the side of the tuna and when it starts to get close to halfway up the side, you had better turn it or its going to be over done.

I'll usually serve it straight from the pan with a side of soy, wasabe and ginger which each person can use to their taste. For a vegtable, it goes absolutely fantastik with my seared asparagus.

Cheers,

Larry

Agree with everyone who says 'rare is better'. Overcooked tuna is really dry.

One of the handiest devices to make tuna steaks is the George Foreman grill, if you happen to have one. Get it good and hot, and it sears both sides at once. Again, don't overcook. It takes some trial and error to determine timings, but do it for a couple of minutes and check to make sure that it's not overdone.

Another technique is to cut the steak into the shape of a stick of butter, get the pan hot, and just roll them on all 4 long sides quickly to sear them. You want it at least pink (preferably red) in the middle. If there's no color, you've overdone it.

When I lived in FL, we would buy sashimi grade tuna and slice it very thin and serve it raw, with soy sauce and wasabi on the side. Buy from a reputable source.
Jo