Sunday feasting!

My wife had a request today - she really wanted some tuna for dinner. So, what to do?

I opted for grilled ahi with soba noodles and arugula. For the tuna, I simply brushed a pair of large steaks with oil, and added a generous amount of salt and pepper, and then seered the outside of both steaks over a very hot grill. (I also grilled some baby bok choy to go with the rest of the dish.) I then plated a pile of freshly cooked soba noodles and some washed arugula, and added the tuna after thinly slicing it. Over the whole thing I added a scallion and ginger dressing. That dressing was also a quick and easy preparation: I heated some canola oil until very hot, and added a generous portion of minced scallion and fresh ginger root. Once the scallion had softened, I took it off the heat, and added soy sauce and rice vinegar. Once that was all cool, it went over the rest of the dish. The results are below!



I could have paired a crisp white wine with this, but I opted for something a bit more appropriate, given the general flavorings. I just happened to have a nice junmai sake available and chilled, so we had that with dinner. It was clean and delicious! The bottle is pictured to the right.

Finally, there's dessert. That was very much not a Pacific Rim dish, but was a nice hearty New England style Indian Maple Pudding. it's a recipe from Food&Wine magazine, but I can't find an online link to it, so I've provided it below.

This is an incredibly yummy dessert. It's very rich...this recipe makes at least 8 servings.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup stone-ground yellow cornmeal
• 1 quart whole milk
• 1/2 cup maple sugar granules or light-brown sugar
• 1 cup heavy cream, not ultrapasteurized, if you can find it
• 1/2 cup pure maple syrup (don't skimp..it's worth the price)
• 1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1) Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Lightly butter a 1-1/2 quart souffle dish. In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, whisk the cornmeal into the milk over moderately high heat until thickened slightly, about 5 minutes.

2) Remove from the heat and stir in the maple sugar granules. Stir in the cream, syrup, and nutmeg. Pour into the prepared dish. Bake in the middle of the oven until bubbling and brown on top, about 4 hours. Let rest 30 minutes before serving.

(Source: Food & Wine magazine's Favorite Desserts)

Plan ahead for this one, but it's well worth it. My wife insists it's even better the next day!