Our smoked tuna is a terrific late-summer entre for an intimate dinner. We say "intimate" when we mean, "for a few people," because we want to make sure there are LOTS of leftovers for our GirlsonaGrill Smoked Tuna Dip the next day.
We start with the freshest and best tuna "tenderloin" we can buy, then we do our best to leave it alone. We add a simple marinade, some heat, some smoke, and WOW!
Marinade:
1 2-lb tuna "tenderloin"
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbs honey
juice and zest of one lime
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp Crystal Hot Sauce
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp garlic powder
2 Tbs fresh cilantro, stems and leaves, chopped
2 limes, quartered, for spritzing and serving
Mix all ingredients in a bowl, and pour into a Ziploc bag. Cut the tuna into quarters, as shown, making 4 pieces, and place the pieces into the marinade. Let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours, up to 6 hours.
Start a one-level fire, medium-hot. Clean and oil the grates before putting them down — then put them on and let them heat up.
Put the tuna steaks over the coals, and where they hit, they sit, until you get good grill marks. You can actually watch the tuna cooking by observing the sides: the meat will turn opaque and brown-beige as it cooks. You only want to cook about 1/4 inch up from the grate for rare, 1/2 inch up from the grate for medium-well. Flip the steaks and cook them for roughly the same amount of time as it took you to cook the first side, until you have cooked the steaks on all four sides. Remove to a platter and let them rest for a couple of minutes.
Slice each steak thinly, and serve with our Grilled Sesame Asparagus and Grilled Potatoes Vinaigrette.
