Tuna cooked 46 C with Squid Ink Mayonnaise

I had a squid ink mayonnaise at Cercle restaurant and thought it could be a versatile sauce. Our grocery store sometimes has big thick tuna steaks so we got one, but wanted to cook it to barely done since there's no fat to keep it from drying out. I adopted the time, temp, and technique for tuna from Serious Eats, and the squid ink mayo from James Beard. Unlike 1990's seared raw tuna, this has a cooked texture that won't scare your auntie, but it's tender in a way that normal cooking cannot achieve. It was easy to put together and worked well enough we'd do it again.

Squid ink mayo under and over tuna, with endive

Tuna

       Salt

400 g  Tuna steak, 3-4 cm thick

 15 ml Olive Oil

Trim the skin off the tuna steak and dust generously with Salt, then put in a zip-top bag.

Let it hang out to dry cure for 30 minutes, then add the Olive oil.

Lower the bag in a sous vide bath set to 46C/115F and let the water pressure push out the air, then zip it shut; don't use a vacuum sealer as it will crush the fish and ooze out the oil.

Cook sous vide 45 minutes.

Squid Ink Mayo

Meanwhile, make the ink mayo. I get my squid ink form Bon Preu grocery store, it's 0.69€ for four little packets, and one is enough to flavor and color this.

  1   Egg Yolk

  4 g Squid Ink (1 packet)

      Juice of 1/2 Lemon

1/2 C Olive Oil

      Salt

Use an electric whisk to blitz the Egg Yolk, Squid Ink, then half of the Lemon Juice, saving some juice to adjust later.

With the whisk running, very slowly drizzle in the Olive Oil; it should emulsify into a classic mayonnaise consistency.

Taste and add Salt and more Lemon Juice if needed; I liked mine pretty bright so added all the juice.

Assembly

Dry the Tuna and get a plancha very hot, then film with oil; sear the Tuna for about 30 seconds per side -- you don't want to cook it any more.

Slice the tuna, it should be a cooked texture, but still a bit pink in the center.

Paint a plate with the Ink Mayo: I used a pastry brush but a fork might be more dramatic.

Fan the Tuna slices on the ink, dollop more on top as needed.

I served with pan braised endive. 

You can use any excess ink mayo on pasta, spread on bread/toast as a pintxo base, or a scary potato salad.

Next Time...

I'd cook the Tuna just a little lower to preserve more pink, maybe 45C.

My plancha didn't give a good sear, so I'd use carbon steel or cast iron.

A fork or squeeze bottle would probably make a more dramatic visual presentation.

Arroz Negro in Barcelona

Arroz negro with snails and some frizzante rosé wine on the terrace

Last week, we moved to Barcelona. We've got a lot of legal, financial, and repair work to do, so we haven't had a lot of time to cook (you can follow our adventures, starting with our move-in).  All of our cooking tools are on a ship somewhere between Baltimore and Barcelona, so we're improvising with what came with our apartment. But we can still whip up some dynamite meals. 

A couple days ago, we got some mussels from a local shop, and Irene cooked them with white wine, leeks, and so on -- very simple, very classic. With some country bread it made a good dinner. 

We had some extra flavorful liquid in the pot which we saved: we never through away flavor! I figured we could use it to make paella or something. 

Last night, after fixing things all day, we went out to Can Cargolet for a big pile of snails and a couple bottles of wine (36€=$36 for the entire meal). We couldn't finish them, and -- surprisingly -- they asked if we wanted them "para llevar", to take away; doggy bags aren't common here, but we couldn't let them go to waste.

When we went to the shop (Bon Preu, a rather nice grocery store a couple blocks away), we picked up some Bomba rice for paella, and asked one of the staff where the "tinto de sepia" was; the squid ink was in the frozen section, and was under 1€ for four sachets -- excellent. 

After returning from the urgent care, Irene picked all the snails out of their shells, and I simmered the shells in the mussel stock to extract more flavor. I sauteed 200g bomba rice in some olive oil, added a the strained stock -- reduced to 500ml -- and added the tinta de sepia. After 20 minutes, I added the reserved snails, and dinner was served. Quite a tasty dish, and as Irene says, "using things up". It's very similar to a paella, but looser, and we're not trying to get the crusty socarrat. Definitely worth doing again.