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Seared Tuna with Ginger Wasabi Vegetables

by Emily

Seared Tuna with Ginger-Wasabi Stirfry

For some reason making seared tuna at home is impressive to people. I mean, I get it, seared tuna is a somewhat “fancy” thing you’d order at a restaurant, but here’s a secret: it’s SO simple (and usually more inexpensive) to prepare in your own kitchen. I promise. This recipe looks good and tastes even better, and if you have guests over they’ll be wowed. Only you have to know the truth: seared tuna takes about 6 minutes to make and is virtually fool-proof.

Tropical Seared Tuna with Ginger-Wasabi Stirfry

Endless Ice Cream: Chocolate Sesame

You may have noticed the lack of chocolate in my ice cream recipes. It’s not that I don’t like chocolate. I just forget about it sometimes. I found a few bars of Green & Black’s stashed away in my cupboard, so I figured it was time to break out a chocolate ice cream. This ice cream is a riff on a recipe I came across in Tea with Bea for a milk chocolate sesame tart topped with cherries. I was intrigued by the though of chocolate and sesame together. This ice cream does not disappoint—it is incredibly rich and chocolatey, the sesame right along side it giving it a depth often lacking in your typical chocolate ice cream. A quick note about the ice cream base: since it is made with buttermilk, the base absolutely must be thoroughly chilled before churning, otherwise the buttermilk will break and separate the custard.

Chocolate Sesame Ice Cream

Appetizers All Night

My back hurts. Really hurts. I have no idea how chefs stand for that many hours in a row. I just finished my most recent catering gig. This was with 80P’s mom again. I conducted many, many brainstorming conversations (thanks: Maids, Romeo, El, WestCoast, BS, 80P…) but because I’m so used to Eating Down the Fridge (using up ingredients in my fridge/pantry and not shopping for new food) that I could only fathom working with items already in my possession, or ones I knew I could pick up while working at the farmers market.

Fortunately, I was recently in Philly for work and had some spare time before dinner (ate at Monk’s–mussels, fries and stout–with BroadAndPattison). I found this adorable nut shack: Nuts to You.

I’m not even kidding, I was in that place for 45 minutes browsing the 4 aisle store filled with nuts, dried fruits, grains and candies. I walked out with, and I’m still not kidding, FIVE pounds of food, which I then had to drag around as I wasted more time checking out Banana Republic, Lacoste, Williams-Sonoma (don’t get me started on their uni-tasker inventory; they have 6 instruments alone to peel and chop garlic) and this weird all-natural soap and lotion place with the perkiest staff of all time. Soap that smells like pine nuts and lavender, no thanks.

I left Nuts To You with: dried dates (pound), dried figs (pound), quinoa (pound), mixed bag of almonds, cashews, peanuts, hazelnuts and walnuts (pound) and cashew butter (pound). Yes, not peanut butter, but cashew butter. And I saw them make it. There was this crazy looking glass machine with some peanut oil in it and the salesperson dumped a pound of cashews into the machine and then out oozed cashew butter. No salt, no preservatives, no corn syrup. Just nuts and oil. A-mazing.

Anyway, with that in the cupboard, here is what I proposed to 80P’s Mom:

Dates and figs (either or both) stuffed with cheese (either ricotta, goat cheese or quark) and herbs. This can be served warm or room temp and can be stuck with a toothpick for serving
Sweet potato disks with cashew butter and chili powder spread ( Can spread the cashew butter on top of the chips or let people dip it)
On a toothpick: cube of roasted winter squash, cube of feta, cube of squash
Cucumber slice with Greek yogurt, lemon zest and quinoa
Artichoke, olive and caper crostini
Radish, cashew butter and broccoli (Or the broccoli can be cooked)

80P’s Mom selections after the jump.