Tuna Confit Salad

About two years ago, my mom and I went to a dinner at Bloomfield Farms and had the most incredible meal - it happened to be a Pop-Up dinner with the chefs from Chez Panisse, which is one of Alice Waters' restaurants. It is in the "Gourmet Ghetto" which is what they call this area of Berkeley that is full of well known and highly acclaimed restaurants - if I could spend an afternoon in this neighborhood on the daily, I would. There are so many places to explore and things to try.

At this Bloomfield Farms dinner, I was awakened by the pure deliciousness of tuna confit - one of our courses was a simple dish of tuna, lemon cucumbers, tomatoes, olive oil, fennel, and a mignonette style pesto sauce. It was one of the most incredible things I have ever eaten and I have been dreaming of it ever since. I never thought of tuna as something sexy or particularly good - you always think tuna and you think tuna nicoise or tuna in a can... you never think of a tuna so fresh and delicious that you dream of it two years later.

Tonight, I attempted to remake it, but alas, with great failure. I will continue to work on the olive oil poaching process, but I may have to email Bloomfield Farms to hunt down that recipe... the tuna turned out too dry, even though it was completely submerged in a f-in pool of oil for ten minutes. Any tips? Tricks? Advice? Holler Catcha girl. 

I decided to make my confit into a salad tonight, and I added cannelini beans for extra protein. I am on DAY 2 of a gluten free diet and am trying all the ways to avoid unnecessary glutenous additions to my meals. My sister has been gluten free for about ten years now, and I always thought I was safe... until recently. My stomach went straight Apocalypse Now on me and I started noticing that it kept happening whenever I ate something with gluten in it. We'll see. I'm trying it out - no promises made, but hell - what've I got to lose? Except delicious San Francisco style baked sourdough from Boudin... pasta from Tosca Café... perfect toast with my eggs... 

The good news is, everything nowadays is gluten free, so in case I do have to go straight GF, I won't be alone in the fight. I feel you, all of you, who have been GF before the fad landed. Good on you boo boos. 

Ingredients:

1 lb of sashimi grade ahi tuna

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups olive oil

Zest of 1 lemon, in wide strips

1 leek, cleaned and thinly sliced

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

1 can of cannellini beans 

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

2 cups of butter lettuce 

2 cups of arugula

1 cup of cherry heirloom tomatoes

Directions:

1. In a deep sauce pan, combine oils, onion, lemon zest, leek, thyme, rosemary, bay leaf,  and salt.

2. Heat oil on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, and maintain heat for 20 minutes to infuse the flavors and aromatics into the oil.

3. Remove from heat and continue to infuse for 30 minutes. The oil will still be warm.

4. Put the saucepan back on the stove over medium-low heat and place the tuna into the still warm oil. If the oil does not cover the whole piece of tuna, flip after 4 minutes on one side. 

5. Immediately remove from heat, and let tuna cook slowly in warm oil. After a minute or two, test for doneness by flaking a piece of tuna. The tuna should be pale pink at the center. (It will also read 135°F on an instant-read thermometer.) If tuna isn’t quite done, return to the oil for another minute, and then test again.

6. When cooked to desired degree, let rest until ready to use.