Tuna is one of the delicious and healthy seafood because of its delicious taste and high nutritional content. Because it is low in fat content, tuna meat tends to dry out and break easily when cooked thoroughly (especially canned tuna). One way to cook tuna without drying it out is to use the searing technique. The searing technique will cook the tuna on the outside, but a little raw on the inside. The searing technique can be learned in a few minutes, even by beginners.
Ingredients
Basic Fried Tuna
- 350 grams of whole tuna, cut into halves (use high quality tuna)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (divided)
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tablespoons rice wine (optional)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce (optional)
- 1 tablespoon chopped ginger (optional)
- 3 tablespoons chopped scallions (optional)
Soy Sauce and Orange Soy Sauce
- 1/4 cup orange juice
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 clove garlic (chopped)
- 2 tablespoons parsley (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano (chopped)
- Pepper to taste
Step
Method 1 of 3: Cooking Tuna with the Pan-Searing Technique
Step 1. Dry the surface of the tuna
Cut the tuna into pieces. Dry the entire surface of the tuna of any remaining liquid with a paper towel, but don't overdry it. Make sure to keep the surface of the tuna moist.
If the remaining liquid on the tuna is not removed, the tuna will not become crunchy when cooked
Step 2. Heat the oil
Heat a skillet over medium or high heat for 5 minutes or until the skillet is smoking. Then, add oil to the pan and wait until it is hot. Use canola oil or oil with a high smoke point; don't use olive oil.
The key to a good searing technique is to cook at high temperatures for short periods of time. Cooking at low temperatures can result in a non-crispy texture and cooking for a long time will dry out the inside of the meat
Step 3. Put the tuna in the pan
Season the tuna with salt and pepper on both sides before cooking. Slowly add the tuna to the pan to avoid splashing the hot oil. The tuna will start to sizzle once it is placed on the pan.
Step 4. Cook both sides of the tuna for 1-2 minutes
As already said, the key to the searing technique is to cook it at a high temperature for a short time. Allow each side to cook for 90 seconds without turning. In this step, you can peek at the underside of the tuna if the surface is browned and crispy. Then, flip the tuna over and cook the other side at the same time.
Cooking time can be adjusted according to the thickness of the tuna. If the cooked tuna is thick enough (about 3 cm), you can cook it for 2-3 minutes on each side
Step 5. Remove the tuna and serve
Tuna is ready to be served when it turns brown and crispy. Sprinkle the tuna with a tablespoon of lemon juice for added flavor. When the tuna has cooled a bit, cut it into pieces against the grain to make it soft.
- Tuna doesn't have to be thoroughly cooked. Almost all restaurants allow the inside of the tuna to be a bit raw. Cooking the tuna thoroughly will dry out the inside.
- Tuna with good quality is quite safe if served rather raw. If you're not sure, use a meat thermometer. According to various sources, the inside of the meat should be served at 51°C.
Step 6. Use leftover tuna cooking oil to cook vegetables and garnishes
If you like, you can prepare an easy and delicious side dish by cooking the vegetables in a frying pan until soft. In this recipe, we use ginger and scallions. However, there are still many ingredients that can be used, depending on what you have in your refrigerator.
To make the garnish, put the scallions and ginger in a skillet, then add a little oil to prevent sticking. Cook until it changes color and is soft. Then, add the soy sauce, rice wine, and remaining lemon juice. Cook for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper, then serve the toppings over the tuna
Method 2 of 3: Seasoning Tuna for More Flavor
Step 1. Mix all the marinade ingredients in a bowl
Making the marinade is very easy. Just mix all the ingredients and seasonings you like. The recipe above will make a delicious soy sauce and citrus mix, but you can also make the marinade with other ingredients. Follow the steps below to make the marinade:
- Almost all marinades contain 1 fatty ingredient and 1 acid ingredient. Fats are found in oil, while acids are found in vinegar, orange juice, wine, or other acidic ingredients.
- Almost all marinades also use additional ingredients to add flavor, such as herbs, spices, sugar, salt, pepper, and so on.
- The recipe above uses orange juice and lemon juice as the acid, olive oil as the fat, and other ingredients for flavor.
Step 2. Add the tuna to the marinade
Pour the finished marinade into a sturdy plastic bag. Put the tuna in the plastic then squeeze the tuna with the marinade until it absorbs. Store the seasoned tuna in the refrigerator for half an hour to 24 hours. Tuna will taste much better if it is soaked for a long time.
You can cover the plastic with additional plastic so it doesn't leak
Step 3. Cook the tuna using the usual searing technique
Heat a frying pan and add oil when it starts to heat up. Remove the tuna from the marinade and clean the tuna from the remaining liquid marinade. Cook the tuna over high heat for 1-2 minutes on each side or to taste.
Step 4. If you like, drizzle each side of the tuna with the marinade
While the tuna is cooking, you can add the marinade to each side of the tuna. When the tuna is turned over, it will be caramelized by the marinade on the heat of the pan.
Do not serve the tuna with the remaining marinade. The seasoning contains tuna juice from raw fish. Before serving, heat the marinade in a skillet to kill the bacteria present in the tuna juice. If you added marinade to the top side of the tuna, flip the tuna over and cook until done
Method 3 of 3: Recipe Variations
Step 1. Try to cook the tuna with the grill
Although the steps above use the stove, you can also cook tuna using a barbecue grill. The method is almost the same: preheat the grill, grease the grill with oil, place the tuna on the grill and bake for 1-2 minutes on each side. In general, using a gas grill is somewhat easier, but you can easily use a charcoal grill as long as the heat of the charcoal is stable enough.
You can read our article on how to properly grill meat
Step 2. Use oil and seasonings to make the outside of the tuna delicious
If you have mastered the searing technique, you can mix spices to season tuna, both liquid and dry seasonings. This method is almost the same as seasoning meat with dry herbs. You can do the steps below:
- Brush the meat lightly with oil after drying with a paper towel to remove any remaining liquid.
- Season the greased meat with your favorite spices. The spices will stick to the oil and will make the outside of the meat crispy.
- The spices that can be used are chopped garlic, chopped parsley, ginger, paprika powder, rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper powder, garlic powder, and other seasonings according to taste.
- After that, season with salt and pepper and cook the tuna with the searing technique as usual.
Step 3. Serve the tuna with the dipping sauce
If you've ever eaten at a sushi restaurant, tuna dishes are usually served with a small bowl of dipping sauce. The dipping sauce can be replaced with your favorite sauce. Soy sauce and teriyaki sauce go well with tuna, but you can use other sauces.
Please read our soy sauce recipe guide for an easy soy sauce that goes well with tuna dishes
Step 4. Panir the tuna before cooking
Panir tuna is certainly very tasty and will make the outer layer of tuna crispy. Panir tuna can be fried in more oil than the searing method. There are various ways to roast tuna, but you can do the following:
- Mix equal amounts of panko breadcrumbs and black sesame flour.
- Roll the tuna into the bread mixture until smooth. If the breadcrumb mixture is still not sticking together, coat the tuna with oil first.
- Cook the tuna with a searing technique, but use more oil to give the tuna a crunchy outer texture.
Tips
- It doesn't really matter if you cook the tuna thoroughly. However, the tuna meat can become a bit dry and the texture of the meat becomes less blended. If you want to cook the tuna thoroughly, try to cover the pan on the skillet while the tuna is cooking for 10 minutes to prevent the tuna from losing its moisture.
- Use this method to keep the pan from sticking: add a drop of oil to the pan and then use a spoon or spatula to coat the entire surface of the pan with the oil. When the pan is hot and ready to use, it won't stick.
- Slice the tuna meat before seasoning with the marinade to make it more absorbent.
