Seared Ahi Tuna
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Cooking fish at home can seem intimidating, but it’s much easier than you might think. Take your cue from Paul Kahan, the chef-owner of Blackbird Restaurant in Chicago.
Kahan is a gifted cook who can combine bold, interesting flavors in a way that shows a certain simplicity and understated style. This dish is an excellent illustration. Kahan serves these three recipes together as a single dish: sliced, seared tuna on soybean pancakes, garnished with basil, soybeans and olives.
At home, it makes a wonderful first course for six. Follow it with a main course of pasta or simply prepared meat.
Toast the fennel and coriander seeds in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat until they are fragrant, stirring often, about 2 minutes. Cool. Use a heavy-bottom skillet on a hard surface to crush the seeds. Combine the seeds with the salt and pepper on a small plate. Dividing the spices equally, press them onto the tuna on all sides to make a firm thin crust. (The recipe can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated for several hours.)
When you are ready to serve, heat the oil in a small heavy skillet over medium-high heat until the oil is smoking. Sear the tuna about 1 minute on each side; the tuna will be barely rare and barely warm in the center. Alternatively, cook the fish to your taste, remembering that tuna cooked through tends to be dry and tasteless.
To serve the tuna, cut it into 1/4-inch thick slices. Arrange 2 Soybean Pancakes on each plate and top with tuna slices, then with the Basil, Olive and Soybean Garnish, dividing all evenly.
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