Not everything served in a bowl is soup.
A bowl serves a good purpose when you’re serving a food that you don’t want to chase all over the plate. I love pasta in a bowl because the rim of the bowl gives you a way to pin down your squirmy pasta pieces. Breakfast in a bowl makes sense too because you have layers of your favorite breakfast items all stacked up.
Now, I guess everything mingled in a bowl isn’t for everyone. I remember one of my kid’s friends not liking anything touching on a plate and all the food had to have its own space. I’m guilty of putting beans or peas in a small bowl on my plate because I don’t want all the juice running around the other foods and getting them soggy.
One Friday night we went to Bonefish Grill and as always I checked out their menu before going and I knew exactly what I was going to order because it looked so pretty in the picture I knew I would be making it because my mouth was watering just looking at the picture.
The redness of the tuna was beautiful and studded with black and white sesame seeds (just happened to have some of each in my pantry), bright green slices of avocado, a wonderful scented jasmine rice, a small heap of passion fruit salsa to the side to enjoy with bites of everything else in the bowl. All the ingredients precisely arranged in a shallow bowl then topped with some crispy tortilla strips. I added a squirt of wasabi to the edge of the bowl and using some Sweet Thai Chili Garlic Sauce. I also added a scattering of some cilantro leaves and some thinly julienne carrots to the top of the bowl and a few pea sprouts for interest. Since I couldn’t find passion fruit in Chicago the weekend we were there, I made a fruit salsa using persimmon, pineapple, pepino
I could have eaten ever bite of this bowl the night I had it at Bonefish but didn’t; I left just enough to make me want more so I would make it myself.
When we were visiting our son, daughter-in-law and two grandsons in Chicago back in May, we made this one night and they loved it. I actually carried the tuna from Texas to Missouri (stopped at my sister’s house for a couple of days), and then to Chicago and it never thawed out. We can buy these individually wrapped tuna steaks in the seafood freezer section at our HEB and I love buying them this way because I can pick up the exact amount I need and then I can just pop them back in the freezer until I need them.
Give this a try if you like tuna and please leave me a note below in the “comment” section and let me know what you think. Note: make your fruit salsa from whatever fruit you can find at the market. I love a good mango salsa also.
BLAST FROM THE PAST: Southern Comfort Breakfast Bowl is a delicious way to stay the weekend.
Fruits for my salsa. I couldn’t find passion fruit so used a pepino melon and persimmon. You can use what ever fruits you want for this salsa; orange and pineapple would be a really good combination.
All chopped up and read to mix. Refrigerate for an hour or so to meld the flavors.
After wiping off the marinade, coat the sides of the tuna steaks with the black and white sesame seeds.
Grill the tuna steaks about 2-3 minutes on each side. You want them to be rare on the inside.
I love pickled ginger and I simply started rolling pieces up around each other and used as a garnish (was eaten of course) on the tuna bowl.
Cook your jasmine rice and start putting your bowl together. Rice in the middle, some sliced avocado on the side, a smear of wasabi paste on the lip of the bow, sliced tuna on top, the ginger rose off to the side.
Top with a few julienned carrots and some micro greens or pea sprouts.
Add some crunchy wonton strips and some of the salsa on the side with a big squirt of the thai chili sauce. Enjoy, I know you will and if you don’t want to make this, at least give it a try at Bonefish Grill.
Spicy Sesame Tuna Bowl
Ingredients
- 4-6 tuna steaks about 4-5 oz. each
- 3-4 Tbsp. black AND white sesame seeds
- 3 Tbsp. soy sauce
- zest of one lime
- 2 cloves garlic finely minced
- 2 Tbsp. lime
- 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger root
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1/2 tsp. black pepper
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- Passion Fruit Salsa or buy any pre-made fruit salsa
- 2-3 passion fruit
- 3/4 c. finely chopped fresh pineapple
- 1 jalapeno seeded and finely chopped
- 1/2 c. finely chopped red onion
- zest and juice of 1 lime
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1/3 c. chopped cilantro
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
- 1 clove garlic crushed, and chopped
- For plating:
- 4-6 cups cooked jasmine rice
- wasabi for smearing on edge of plate
- pickled ginger
- fried won ton strips for garnishing
- micro greens or pea shoots for garnishing
- 2 avocados sliced and run under water
- julienned carrots for garnishing
Instructions
- Mix all the marinade ingredients together and add the tuna steaks. Refrigerate and marinate for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.
- Remove the tuna steaks from the refrigerate 30 minutes before you are ready to cook them. Using paper towels, blot off the marinade. Mix the black and white sesame seeds together and press them into the outside edges of the tuna steaks.
- Cook the tuna in a very hot skillet or over a hot fire for about 1 minute per side. Then take it off and let it rest for about 4-5 minutes before slicing into 1/4" slices.
- Cut the avocado into thin slices. I usually run mine under cold water because that will help to prevent slices from darkening.
- To make your bowl, add a scoop of rice to middle of the bowl and spread out a little. Top with 4-5 slices of the tuna. Add the avocado to one side and the passion fruit salsa to the other side of the bowl. Sprinkle on some zested carrots, a few pea shoots, cilantro leaves and top with some of the tortilla strips. Put a small cup of Thai Chili Garlic Sauce to the side and use this to drizzle over your bowl of tuna.
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