Tuna Timbale Tower Recipes

AHI TUNA TOWER

Steps:

• Gently warm the rice vinegar, salt, and sugar in the microwave or on the stove just to melt the sugar and salt.
• In a pressure cooker or rice cooker, cook the rice to package directions. When the rice is cooked, remove it from the pot and mix in the rice vinegar mixture. Spread the rice out in a shallow bowl or plate and allow it to cool completely before using it. This can be done up to a day ahead.
• In a bowl, mix the mayo and sriracha together, taste and adjust to your heat level if you like it more or less spicy. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons for the bottom of the plate.
• First, shred the crab sticks by pulling them apart like you would a cheese stick. This could also be done by shredding with two forks. Mix in the remaining spicy mayo. Just before using toss in the crispy onions and about 1 teaspoon of the caviar if you are using it. This can be made up to a day ahead, store in an airtight container and reserve the onions and caviar.
• In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, Mirin, chili flakes, sesame oil, and grated ginger. Stir to combine. Toss the diced tuna and cucumber in the marinade and let it meld in the refrigerator for about 2 hours, this will hold in the marinade for up to 24 hours. Fold in the chives just before building your tower.
• In an adjustable measuring cup, layer in about 1 inch of sushi rice and tamp it down. Next layer in the avocado, about 1/2 an avocado per tower, and tamp it down tight. Then layer the crab salad in on top of the avocado and the marinated tuna. Tamp them down until tight. This layer procedure is key, do it in the order to prevent your rice from getting soggy and tower from tumbling. Gently press the tower out of the mold. Top with more crab salad, caviar, and a dusting of crispy onions. Spread a line of the spicy mayo and eel sauce on the side of the plate, use a chopstick to make swirls through the sauces to decorate the plate. Serve immediately and enjoy!

TUNA TARTARE (IN HOMAGE TO MORTON'S STEAKHOUSE!

Steps:

• Cube the well-chilled Tuna into 1/2 inch cubes. Place into a clean bowl.
• Drizzle lightly with olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to taste, gently stir well, coating all the cubes with the oil, and refrigerate. You will season each component (bowl) individually, so BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO OVER SALT/Season.
• Dice the tomatoes into a similar sized cut, place into another bowl, DRAIN OFF the excess juice. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, gently stir well, coating all the cubes with the oil, and refrigerate.
• Score the Avocado in half (the long way). Spin the two halves to gently separate them. Remove the pit. Cube the Avocado, in the skin, by gently, carefully, scoring (horizontally, and vertically) into cubes--- approximating the sizes of the tuna, and the tomatoes.
• Using a spoon, gently scoop the cubed avocado from the skin, and place into another bowl. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, gently stir well, coating all the cubes with the oil, and refrigerate.
• Remove the bowls from the fridge.
• Gently toss the fish with the lime juice, and/or vinegar.
• On your surface, place some wax paper, or butcher paper beneath your vertical food mold.
• Starting with the tomatoes, fill the mold with equal parts of each bowl's contents, one third of the way, with each item. Gently press down between layers. Then avocado, THEN TOP with the tuna.
• NOTE: If you do not have molds, use matching "Rocks" glasses, or similar, to shape the dish's presentation ("Timbale" shaped).
• Put your, CHILLED, plates onto your work surface, OPTIONAL: You can lightly drizzle, or swirl some sort of design onto the whole plate (using Sriracha sauce), and then lay a bed of COLD, chopped, cilantro in the center of each plate--- leaving about a one-inch border of the edge of the plate clear.
• GENTLY lift your mold, AND PAPER, and quickly center it onto the mound of Cilantro--- gently sliding the paper AS YOU PLATE the mold, so that the paper is removed.
• Gently tamp down the layers with the back of a wooden spoon, or with fingertips--- to, TENDERLY, firm the mold.
• Let it SIT for three to five minutes, and gently remove the mold from the dish, leaving the tuna, avocado, and tomato timbale standing firmly in place.
• Grind some more black pepper, and sprinkle it lightly onto the top of the timbale.
• OPTIONAL: You may ALSO add a few capers, or some chopped black olives as a garnish--- on the top of the timbale. You may also sprinkle some around the edge/border of the plates.
• It would be excellent to offer wedges of lemon, and/or, lime for squeezes.
• OPTIONAL: Dollop of LIGHT SOUR CREAM onto each plate.
• SERVE with Baguette slices, mini Croissants, or Water Crackers, and glasses of a well-chilled Sancerre, Chardonnay, Riesling, or Gewürztraminer.