Seared tuna with pistachio crust and papaya salsa from Ottolenghi: The Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi

L.Nightshade on May 22, 2011

The salsa takes longer than the tuna, just the time spent chopping mango, cucumber, red chiles, ginger, and red onion. The chopped ingredients are tossed with fish sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, and caster sugar. I bought ahi tuna steaks for this, instead of the specified loin cut into cylinders. The tuna is very easy. It is first seared in a pan, then brushed with dijon mustard and coated with ground pistachios mixed with a little lemon zest. It is finished in the oven. Well, just lovely. The salsa is so good I could eat it with a spoon. It would be great in fish tacos too. I loved the pistachio, mustard, and tuna combination. We like to err to the rare on our tuna, and I had a little trouble with the timing. It's hard to tell when a fish is done when it's crusted with nuts. But it came out fine. A very enjoyable dish, it's going into my rotating list for sure