Ahi Tuna Steaks & Pizza Quinoa Bites

August 01, 2012

Ahi Tuna Steaks & Pizza Quinoa Bites

Ahi Tuna Steaks

Quinoa Pizza Bites

My cousin Will and his friend Matt were halfway along with their road trip from North Carolina when they stopped in to San Francisco last Tuesday. They had been traveling westward for hours upon days, and had been camping along the way. They were out camping in Colorado and Utah for the most part, but stopping at random spots in between. As you can imagine, they were so excited to have some couches to sleep on for a few days and have a home cooked meal-I had a feeling they had been eating a lot of fast food. I also had a good girl friend coming over, and for some reason (pure luck on her behalf), she always ends up coming when I am making some kind of expensive and delicious meat (cheers!). Anyways, I knew I wanted to make something delicious and fairly out of my comfort zone.

Something that is in my comfort zone, however, is surfing the Internet. I think I may have mentioned this before, but I have been “Pinning” like a madwoman. I have a whole dream wardrobe just waiting for me to purchase, and then I will become the most stylish person…in the WORLD. I also think I have the capabilities to cook and make whatever I want, which is only semi-true (whatever, maybe not true at all). Apparently I think I have all of this time on my hands, and I think that I will get around to making Christmas gifts out of a DIY snowman treat, individually wrapped with love and care for all of those I love. This is not the case, though it probably would be cheaper making my Christmas gifts out of food this year, so I’ll keep that in mind.

Aside from the amazing DIY projects on Pinterest, I love it when I find a Pinterest recipe that looks easy to make, and not incredibly expensive. I knew I’d be dropping some money down for the fresh fish, so it’s nice to make something fairly inexpensive to balance out the main course. , I looooove pizza, as I have previously mentioned in my veggie pizza blog. And I also love quinoa, which is why I was so excited when I saw “Quinoa Pizza Bites” on Pinterest. I knew this would be a perfect light, but flavorful side to my dinner. They are also SO SO SO easy to make. I also had just bought some beautiful heirloom tomatoes from downstairs, so I also made a side Caprese salad, which I won’t share here because I already have a recipe on the site.

I found a Mahimahi recipe to my liking for the fish, but tweaked it a lot, so my end result didn’t end up at all like the recipe I originally based my idea off of. The original recipe asks to cook the fish in a clam juice, but I wasn’t using Mahimahi, nor am ready to venture into clam juice, so I ignored this.

My cousin and his friend wanted their tuna to be fully cooked. But for the other two steaks, I decided to leave the middle a tad rare, which in tuna’s case means it’s still a little raw and pink in the middle. Don’t worry, though, you eat uncooked tuna all the time! Those sushi masters know how to slice and dice raw tuna like a fat kid knows how to eat cake (thanks, Jay Z).

Ahi Tuna Steaks

Ingredients:

6 Ahi Tuna steaks (can get a little pricey, so unless you are making it big ballin’ status, I suggest you ask for a couple bucks from whomever you are making it for. This isn’t the Soup Kitchen, people. I am a working, struggling, 20 something year old still trying to make a living!!)

¼ cup pine nuts, toasted (if you don’t have a toaster oven, a regular oven or a stovetop toast is fine-just watch them carefully so they don’t burn)

1 tablespoon finely chopped marjoram

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium shallot, minced

1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme

Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Heat a medium-large sized saucepan over medium-high heat, and drizzle olive oil over pan.

2. Add marjoram leaves to the pan, stirring so that they don’t burn, but start to brown a little

3. Rub tuna with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Add tuna steaks to the pans, letting sear on each side on high heat for roughly 3-6 minutes per side, depending on your preferences of well done or slightly rare