Recipe: Tuna Steak with Japanese Vegetables

I have recently been reading about Harumi Kurihara, the "Martha Stewart of Japan." She makes a dish of bite-sized steak with chopped vegetables that is just as do-able with tuna steak (not very unlike the trout with diced, caramelized yellow bell pepper and shredded brussels sprouts that I made the other day, if I do say so myself -- I'll post that recipe next).


Fish-and-vegetables are the basic ingredients of many of the meals I make. They make a light, nourishing meal, with endless possibilities for variation.

Tuna Bites with Japanese Vegetables for 4
About 2 lbs tuna steaks (3/4" thick if possible)
Olive or peanut oil for cooking
2 tablespoons finely chopped ginger
¼ Cup finely chopped watercress
¼ Cup scallions, chopped
¼ cup ribbed and finely chopped celery
Small handful shredded shiso leaves (or a mix of fresh basil and mint leaves, shredded)
Dashi shoyu sauce, to taste (a half-and-half mixture of fish stock and soy sauce)
Grated daikon or radish


Cut the tuna steaks into bite-sizes pieces. Heat the oil in a ridged griddle pan or frying pan and quickly cook the cubes, browning on all sides. (I added a bit of hot chilli sesame oil for the sesame flavor and the heat.)


Mix the chopped vegetables, except the daikon/radish, together. When the tuna is cooked to your liking, place it on a serving dish with the chopped vegetables on top. Make the dashi shoyu sauce and pour it on. Top each serving with grated daikon/radish.

Recipe: Seared Tuna with Ginger-Garlic Dipping Sauce

Today we had left over Vietnamese-style cabbage salad, which was not going to be enough. So this seared tuna provided a quick fix.

Seared Tuna with Ginger-Garlic Dipping Sauce (for 1)

0.5 lbs sashimi-grade tuna
peanut oil
sesame oil
lemon juice
nam pla
minced ginger
minced garlic
minced cilantro
nama shoyu
red chilli pepper
chilli oil

For the dipping sauce, I mixed no more than 1 tsp. each (possibly less) of sesame oil, lemon juice, nam pla, ginger, garlic, and cilantro with a dash of red chilli pepper and poured it onto a plate in a circle.

I heated some peanut oil on a pan, patted the tuna dry, and seared it over high heat. Then I sliced the tuna and placed the slices on top of the dipping sauce on the plate, and put a drop each of chilli oil and nama shoyu onto each piece.