Seared Tuna with Sichuan Pepper and Soy-Mustard Sauce
A lightning-quick and very impressive appetizer, one we've been serving for nearly twenty years and one that has remained enormously popular. Sichuan peppercorns add their wonderful, smoky overtones, and finishing the dish with my soy-and-mustard "vinaigrette" is just perfect.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced shallots
- 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
- ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon grape seed, corn, or other neutral oil, plus more as needed
- 2 cups mesclun or other mix of greens
- ¼ cup alfalfa sprouts
- Freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup Sichuan peppercorns, husks only, cracked
- Salt
- Four 3-ounce pieces sushi-grade tuna, each about 1 inch in diameter
- A few cooked fresh soybeans, optional
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the first 4 ingredients and 1 tablespoon of the lime juice. Continue whisking and slowly drizzle in ¼ cup of the oil. Set aside.
- Toss the mesclun and sprouts with the remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and 1 tablespoon oil in a medium-size bowl. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
- Press the cracked Sichuan pepper and a little salt on all sides of the tuna. Heat a pan over high heat and lightly coat it with oil right before the pan starts smoking. Sear the tuna on each side for 30 seconds.
- Slice the tuna into ½-inch slices with a serrated knife and arrange on a plate. Garnish with the salad, soy-mustard sauce, and soybeans, if you like.