Seared ahi. It may have you thinking back to the days in the early 90′s when it seemed that every restaurant was going avant and serving a thick slice of almost raw tuna. We were all so amazed to be served this supremely rare piece of fish at a non-Japanese restaurant. Well the phenomenon has cooled a bit, but it seems that seared ahi is here to stay. Now home chefs, and restaurants of a lower caliber are serving up pieces of tuna, the breath barely being taken from the gills. And of course, I have something to say about it.

I have eaten one too many dry, overly meaty tuna steaks to let this behavior go on. It’s the typical story: I order seared ahi and out comes a beautiful, thick steak, grill marks dark and emblazoned. But then I cut into it. It is desiccated, parched of any moisture, and the interior, though red and rare, is tepid and tasteless. It just seems to be a case of right fish, wrong cooking method. I love a piece of rare tuna, it just has to be good.

So I went to the fish monger and I requested one steak, rosy red, and smelling of the sea. My steak weighed about one pound, and was one and a quarter inches thick. I then requested that my steak be cut in half, horizontally. Is the bourgie getting cheap, you may be asking yourself? Two thin filets, rather than one thick steak…who is she trying to fool? My answer to you, is that I am trying to fool no one, just please my belly.

I went home, and seasoned my steak(s) simply, just a bit of salt and pepper. I set a skillet to heat on the stove, and got to making a delicate sauce. It was just a bit of browned butter, a touch of good, fruity olive oil, and some branches of marjoram simmered in a saucepan, letting the herb get crisp while infusing the mixture with its flavor. My pan was screaming hot by now. I added a bit of olive oil, to prevent sticking, and laid my steaks down in the pan with a sizzle. Now this alternative method of cooking is fast. You still want the steaks to be rare, so in order to do so, I cooked the steaks for only 20 seconds a side.

With the steaks done cooking, I spooned the buttery sauce on top, and dug in. The steaks were perfect, moist yet flaky, the interior warm yet rare, and the sauce a delicate dream. With a side dish of okra salad, (Okra– isn’t that just a slimy mess of vegetation? Wait until next post, fair readers.) my thin little tuna steaks were just the successful experiment, leading to the ideal dinnertime specialty, that made me say, “Bring back the 90′s!”