Grilled Tuna With Smoked Almond Romesco Sauce Recipes

GRILLED TUNA WITH ROMESCO SAUCE

Steps:

• Make the romesco sauce: In a food processor, combine the red peppers, almonds, bread, vinegar, honey and smoked paprika. Pulse to combine. With the motor running, add the olive oil and puree until combined. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
• Make the fish: Preheat an outdoor grill or a grill pan to medium high. Drizzle the tuna with the olive oil and generously season with salt and pepper on both sides. Grill for about 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill, tent with foil and let stand for a few minutes. Thinly slice the tuna and serve with the romesco sauce.

TUSCAN-STYLE GRILLED TUNA STEAKS

Steps:

• Rinse and pat tuna steaks dry. Place zest on top of cutting board. Pile rosemary and parsley leaves on top of zest. Pile garlic and some coarse salt and black pepper or grill seasoning on top of herbs. Finely chop the garlic, herbs, and spices. Drizzle the olive oil over the tuna steaks just enough to coat each side. Rub herb and garlic mixture into fish, coating pieces evenly on each side. Let stand 10 minutes.
• Grill tuna steaks 6 minutes on each side or 4 minutes on each side, if you prefer pink tuna at the center. Cook steaks over: high setting on indoor electric grill, medium high heat on outdoor gas grill or, 6 inches from hot, prepared charcoal.
• Serving suggestions: garlic toasts or grilled crusty bread
• Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl or large food storage plastic bag. Coat mushroom caps evenly in marinade.
• Place mushroom caps on the grill cap-side-up and season with grill seasoning or salt and pepper. If you are using an indoor tabletop electric grill, preheat to 400 degrees F or "high" setting. If you are using an outdoor gas grill, preheat to medium high; for a charcoal grill, prepare coals and cook mushrooms 6 inches from hot coals. Mushrooms will cook 4 to 6 minutes on each side. Cook mushrooms covered or under tin foil tent and turn occasionally.
• Combine tomatoes, rosemary, and smoked mozzarella. Drizzle with oil and toss.
• Fill mushroom caps with tomato mixture and top with sliced mozzarella. The mushrooms will look like small pizzas. Place caps in oven at 425 degrees F until cheese melts or you can close grill lid or replace tin foil tent over mushroom caps to melt cheese, it will take 1 to 3 minutes. Serve as-is or, place stuffed caps on garlic toast or sliced crusty bread to catch the juices.

SMOKY ROMESCO

Steps:

• Set up your favorite smoker and add a handful of hardwood chunks. If you have heat control, set it to whatever position will give you moderate heat: 180 to 200 degrees F. Allow the wood to smoke for approximately 30 minutes before adding food.
• While the smoker is heating, position an oven rack 5-inches below the broiler and set the broiler to high.
• Halve the peppers lengthwise, discard the seeds, place cut side-down on a sheet pan, then broil, rotating the pan halfway through, until the skins are charred, about 10 minutes. (Or you can char them over your gas cooktop burners if you have them. It's a little messy but darned efficient and fun in a medieval kind of way.)
• Transfer the peppers to a large bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside for 15 minutes, then slip the charred skins off the peppers with your hands. (Doing this under running water helps.)
• Spread the tomato paste into a thin layer on piece of parchment paper and place on a baking rack along with the peppers and garlic. Smoke for 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile, heat a toaster oven to 400 degrees F and toast the almonds until light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
• Set up a food processor with an S-blade (the normal processing blade) and load in the bread cubes, smoked peppers, garlic and tomato paste, the toasted almonds, sherry vinegar and salt. Pulse until uniform but still chunky, then leave the motor running while you add the oil in a constant stream. (Do this fairly quickly so that the sauce doesn't puree completely.)
• For full flavor, wait a couple of hours to serve at room temp. To store, cover tightly and refrigerate for up 10 days or freeze in ice cube trays for easy dosing.

SERRANO-HAM-WRAPPED YELLOWFIN TUNA WITH ROMESCO SAUCE

Steps:

• Cover chiles with boiling-hot water and soak until softened, about 30 minutes.
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 400°F.
• While chiles soak, toss onion and garlic with 1 tablespoon olive oil in a shallow baking pan, then spread out evenly and roast until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Stir in almonds and bread cubes and roast until almonds are golden, about 10 minutes. Cool in pan on a rack.
• Drain soaked chiles in a sieve set over a small bowl and reserve soaking water. Discard stems and seeds.
• Blend soaked chiles (use caution when blending hot liquids), roasted bread mixture, piquillo peppers, paprika, vinegar, extra-virgin olive oil, and salt until smooth, adding reserved chile water, 1 tablespoon at a time, to thin to desired consistency.
• Sprinkle tuna all over with salt and pepper and tightly wrap middle of each piece with a slice of serrano ham (ends of tuna will be exposed).
• Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until just smoking, then sear tuna, turning over once, until ham is golden brown and crisp but tuna is still very rare in center, about 3 minutes total.
• Serve tuna with sauce.