Rice Kick, pt. 3

Pan-seared tuna with stir-fried spinach
Originally uploaded by michelle1975.

So we finally got around to having one of the meals I’d been dreaming about since last week. I made a trip to Nouveau Falero to pick up some “sushi grade” yellowfin tuna and some Japanese sushi rice. Tuna costs a fortune, of course, but I only wanted a small piece, one just large enough that we could split it in two and still have a few healthy bites. I knew that incomparable tuna flavor would go a long way. I wanted some kind of green as part of the meal, and I’d been weighing the pros and cons of baby bok choy when we suddenly got some wonderful fresh spinach from our friend Hermine that was of a variety neither of us had ever encountered. In terms of look and flavor, one got the impression that it was a cross between spinach, red chard, and beet greens. We cooked our rice as per the instructions on the back of the package—1 1/4 cups of water to 1 cup of rice, a dash of salt, and a 25-minute cooking time—then added a light mixture of rice vinegar, salt, and sugar before fluffing it. In the meantime we stir-fried the spinach leaves with just a bit of canola oil, a touch of sesame oil, some ginger, some garlic, and some salt. Finally, we pan-seared the tuna in a non-stick pan on medium-high heat, leaving it perfectly rosé on the inside, as it should be. We garnished each bowl with toasted sesame seeds and scallions.

The set-up:

2 of our favorite Japanese bowls
2 of our favorite sets of chopsticks
2 portions rice
2 portions stir-fried spinach
2 portions pan-seared tuna
Toasted sesame seeds
Minced scallions
Tamari

2 bowls miso soup

1 beer (preferably Japanese) to share

2 cups Genmai Cha

Total cost for two: well under $10.00.

aj

PS--Thank you, Hermine, we loved the spinach and it complemented the meal perfectly.