tuna (US - toona)

in my experience, people that dont like fish typically come from non-cosmopolitan landlocked areas of the U.S. like oklahoma.

  On 1/21/2010 at 6:20 PM, keltoi said:

my tuna pasta dish is also called tuna surprise.

 

it's got pesto, garlic, toasted pine nuts and parmegiano.

THAT SOUNDS FUCKING DELICIOUS!

  On 1/21/2010 at 6:17 PM, hexagon son said:

  On 1/21/2010 at 6:13 PM, jefferoo said:

I love tuna. Tuna sushi, canned tuna, tuna steak... You name it. I aspire to get mercury poisoning, too.

I have a great "recipie" I invented that I've made a few dozen times. It's for when you're broke and you want a fancy meal. I'll try my best to describe:

 

I call this my Tuna Suprise

(serves 2 with slight chance of leftovers)

 

1 LARGE can (or 3 regular sized cans) of tuna in oil... Not water

-1 half box of pasta (any kind will do, I usually use rotini but whatever you got works)

- a butt-load (4 tablespoons? You really can't add too much of this stuff) of fresh Rosemary (dried works too)

-1 half-stick o butter

-1 lemon

-1 package of fresh spinach

-salt

-2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic

-olive oil

-large pot

-regular frying pan

-wooden spoon or spatula for stirring

 

-start cooking the pasta with a bit of Rosemary, salt and olive oil in the water.

- drain majority of oil from canned tuna

- heat pan on medium heat with about a tablespoon of butter and a splash of olive oil. Add tuna.

- quickly chop about 3 tablespoons of Rosemary. Add to and stir into tuna.

- the tuna should sautee in butter, olive oil and Rosemary. It starts out kinda pink and greys as it cooks. This is fine bit try not to cook it too rapidly. I've found the best results are when you stack the tuna into a little "puck" in the middle of the pan and occasionally (let's say every 2 minutes) stir it up and reform the puck shape. The idea with the puck is it kinda steams inside and doesn't heat through too quickly.

- it's a good idea, after the tuna looks like it has all changed from pink to grey, to change from medium to low heat. Again, you don't want to overcook the tuna so if it is steaming or bubbling a lot, reduce the heat to keep tuna moist.

- If the tuna starts to look like dry, add a little splash of olive oil and add teaspoon or two of butter. You can repeat this as many times as necessary.

- it will start smelling heavenly as you pasta is about finished. At this point you should start tasting the tuna and adding your desired amount of salt. When adding salt, stir it into tuna well.

- when the pasta is about done, add and stir in half of the chopped fresh garlic to tuna. Try to keep the garlic from getting too thoroughly cooked.

- Once you've addded the garlic, if your pasta is done, you can drain the pasta.

- turn off heat on tuna.

- now you can stir the cooked tuna and remaining chopped garlic into the pasta. I usually add another spash of olive oil, or two to the mixed tuna/pasta.

- put a large handfull of fresh spinach on a plate and cover it with pasta/tuna.

- slice lemon into quaters and squeeze one quarter of lemon's juice over each plate. Ready to serve.

if you actually took the time to type this, and didn't copy it from teh internets, i have much respect. in fact, i will try this myself.

I did... and on my iPhone. I have a major thumb cramp now.

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:00 PM, Fred McGriff said:

my wife will sometimes fix herself the canned tuna over some rice with some black beans. fucking sick. smells like fucking catfood. blows my mind how people can eat that. canned tuna is unapologetically funky, especially if you've ever smelled fresh tuna before.

 

keltoi how can you like canned tuna but not proper tuna steak? that's even more baffling. what dont you like about the steak?

I can kind of understand it (and by understand I mean sympathise withthe insanity of it) . real tuna can have a kind of "livery" aroma when it's cooking (and by "livery" i mean not really that much like liver at all, but - well - slightly fishy, which i suppose is to be expected. either way, i think it has more of a smell than the tinned crap (which is not at all crap if you by tuna steak in oil... none of that flaked stuff or brine or springwater crap)

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:04 PM, Fred McGriff said:

in my experience, people that dont like fish typically come from non-cosmopolitan landlocked areas of the U.S. like oklahoma.

i agree wholegeartedly although i have no experience of American fish eating habits but it does sound entirely feasible and Fred's opinion on most things, not least cuisine, is usually pretty close to the mark (apart from that hamburger helper which, thinking back, didn't seem so bad when we englishers learned that by hamburger you mean ground beef and by ground beef you mean mince)

mince

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:04 PM, Fred McGriff said:

in my experience, people that dont like fish typically come from non-cosmopolitan landlocked areas of the U.S. like oklahoma.

Minneapolis, MN

lots of lakes there

yeah enough said

fine, be right

no you

wait

hoi hoi, you guys. dont ruin a good food thread. god knows some of you lot need cooking lessons

When my blood was poisoned from a brown recluse or something I wanted tuna.

but yeah areas that have freshwater fish as their only source of fresh fish tend to produce lots of fish haters. all the good tasting fish comes fresh from the ocean and hasn't been frozen. so you're either paying for your for your fish's plane ticket when you get it from your local landlocked fishmonger or you taking a massive hit in the taste department. i had trout a few weekends ago up in the mountains of colorado, fresh caught, and it wasn't "ick" but it was pretty weak and prepared in a manner that disguised the fish. lakewater fish just doesnt bring it. all of the beautiful fresh sea fish out there, all the tuna, the wild salmon, halibut, monkfish, snapper, i could live on that for an eternity and never eat beef again, and typically people who have everyday exposure (who live on the coast for example) never say that fish is "ick." good, fresh sushi reveals the massively tasty nature of sea-caught fish. i now have a massive 14" fish boner.

what the heck is a brown recluse?

wait i don't think i want ot know

extremely deadly spider that impregnates you with a spider fetus and makes you have odd pregnant woman food cravings.

i love tuna. i always get a toasted tuna sub from subway.

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:31 PM, Fred McGriff said:

but yeah areas that have freshwater fish as their only source of fresh fish tend to produce lots of fish haters. all the good tasting fish comes fresh from the ocean and hasn't been frozen. so you're either paying for your for your fish's plane ticket when you get it from your local landlocked fishmonger or you taking a massive hit in the taste department. i had trout a few weekends ago up in the mountains of colorado, fresh caught, and it wasn't "ick" but it was pretty weak and prepared in a manner that disguised the fish. lakewater fish just doesnt bring it. all of the beautiful fresh sea fish out there, all the tuna, the wild salmon, halibut, monkfish, snapper, i could live on that for an eternity and never eat beef again, and typically people who have everyday exposure (who live on the coast for example) never say that fish is "ick." good, fresh sushi reveals the massively tasty nature of sea-caught fish. i now have a massive 14" fish boner.

I could see truth in that. I should've tried this fish in the UK, I know fish-n-chips is very common but it's always fried (I opted for the prawns).

my next two songs shall be named in honour of the noble tuna and the malevolent brown recluse

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:36 PM, essines said:

i love tuna. i always get a toasted tuna sub from subway.

why is it that essines always make sence to me? oh yeah, that right... he's from van.

sense

i'm having sushi tonight

i'm having a massive birthday sushi night out next week

YES!

I load Skips with tuna and pretend I'm the captain of a ship sailing straight down the throat of heaven.

Agaat (cucmber relish) goes well with seared tuna.

4 parts sugar

4 parts white (coconut) vinegar

5 parts water

Good pinch of salt

Bring to the boil then cool.

Julienne a cucumber, a small red onion or some thai shallots, red chillies. Maybe some ginger too. Chopped coriander (cilantro for the heathens). Pour the syrup over the salad and mix.

This also works as an accompaniment for thai curries or even just as a relish for rice.

I like canned chunk white tuna in oil with just mayo and some chopped onion. Anything sweet, like relish, just ruins it. I can understand how people hate the smell of it, though. It can definitely smell like cat food sometimes, but it certainly tastes a lot better than it smells (unlike canned corned beef hash which both smells and tastes like cat food).

I don't really like the taste of fresh tuna/tuna steak either, though honestly I think I've only tried it once or twice so maybe I just had bad luck those times. I'm also not much of a fish person in general, though I've gotten better as an adult. When I was a kid, I refused to eat most seafood. Now I at least like crabs, shrimp, and different types of white fish. And for what it's worth, I've never lived in a landlocked state. I've been on the east coast my entire life.

  On 1/21/2010 at 11:57 PM, leprechaun said:

I like canned chunk white tuna in oil with just mayo and some chopped onion. Anything sweet, like relish, just ruins it. I can understand how people hate the smell of it, though. It can definitely smell like cat food sometimes, but it certainly tastes a lot better than it smells (unlike canned corned beef hash which both smells and tastes like cat food).

I don't really like the taste of fresh tuna/tuna steak either, though honestly I think I've only tried it once or twice so maybe I just had bad luck those times. I'm also not much of a fish person in general, though I've gotten better as an adult. When I was a kid, I refused to eat most seafood. Now I at least like crabs, shrimp, and different types of white fish. And for what it's worth, I've never lived in a landlocked state. I've been on the east coast my entire life.

Your missing the celery...

Tuna salad is bullshit without the celery.

  On 1/21/2010 at 7:00 PM, Fred McGriff said:

keltoi how can you like canned tuna but not proper tuna steak? that's even more baffling. what dont you like about the steak?

i've been giving this some thought cos i'm equally baffled. it's like enjoying burgers but hating a fine quality angus fillet which is preposterous..

and it's definately not that i'm averse to fish. there's nothing i like better than being on some island in the med or local restaurant in the scottish isles or west of scotland, and asking for the catch of the day, whatever it is sometimes i don't even ask for the surprise... cooked whole, simply with garlic and butter, squeeze of lemon (fuck i'm salivating). i can eat spanish BBQ sardines (head and all) by the spade load.

last year i went camping/fishing near skye in a little rubber dinghy with friends... we caught about 2 dozen mackerel and noone else knew what to do with them so i gutted them and cooked them up 3 different ways while we all drank by the raging fire...

1. rubbed with garlic and salt over an open fire in a fish griddle cage.

2. un-adulerated in a little wood smoke oven - squeeze of lemon before eating.

3. baked/wrapped in foil with butter, white wine and garlic.

everyone was in ecstacy i felt so fuckin great... even fish haters and fussy kids were lapping it up.

man i love fish. i'm going to have to do some fishing this summer.

but tuna steak... ludd touched on it slightly with the liver thing. i think it's the tightly grained texture rather than succulent flakes of white fish or the meatyness of say monkfish that i love. i've had it in sushi bars and it requires effort to chew and needs soy and wasabi for flavour. maybe i've not had the proper gear yet.

i'm well up for trying more of it cos it always looks excellent, it's just always disappointed me so far.

i've certainly not written it off just yet.