Seared Aleppo tuna,

Anyone can do a seared tuna that knows how to cook, but can they add the finesse needed to do it right. I will explain how I made this Aleppo seared tuna with mango salsa, fried yucca, and coconut cream.

These are the things you will need.

1# of  loin  yellow fin tuna +2

For the salsa:

1 ripe mango

1 small red onion

½ bunch cilantro

1 TBL passion fruit puree

1Tbl brunoise jalapeno

2 tsp seasoned rice wine vinegar

For the Aleppo seasoning

¼ cup dried Aleppo pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

2 Tbls salt

1 heaping TBL fresh ground black pepper

Coconut Cream

1 can coconut meat in syrup

1 can coconut milk sweetened

1 Tbl sugar

½ cup cream

1 large yucca.

First thing you should always do when working on a dish accompanied by salsa, is make the salsa before you do anything, Salsas are always better after they have sat at room temperature for a while.

Dice the mango, small dice the red onion, bruniose the jalapeno, chop cilantro, mix all these together add the passion fruit puree, and vinegar, season and let set.

Now adding the dry ingredients for the rub in a spice grinder, grind them to be fine and completely mixed.

For yucca, always peel through the second layer this can be achieved by slicing length wise down the side of the yucca and inserting the blade parallel with the slice. In a prying motion get the blade of the knife to start removing the skin on the yucca. Similar to peeling an orange if you think about it. Once peeled cut into desired sizes, I tried to match my tuna and yucca in size. Boil your yucca parts until they have softened and cool till completely chilled.

Coconut cream: strain the coconut from the syrup, add to sauce pot, cover with coconut milk. Bring to a simmer and cook for approximately 8 minutes, add sugar, cool completely, add to the blender and measure out the heavy cream. Blend the coconut with the milk until smooth. This part is important in order to get the proper consistency, while the coconut milk and coconut are blending add the heavy cream slowly to whip the cream into a solid state. Once you have added the cream turn off the blender immediately and poor the cream mixture into a metal bowl over ice and mix briefly.

Cut your tuna down to the desired size and season generously with your rub. You don’t want the tuna to be exposed through the spice mix. Get a pan hot, add canola oil, just enough to coat the bottom. Being very careful not to splatter yourself with hot oil place the tuna in slowly, sear for about 45 seconds on all sides and remove from the pan. You do not want to cook to deep in the tuna.

In another pan get hot with oil and sear your yucca till golden brown on all sides, finish in a 400 degree oven for about 4 minutes.

Now all the mies en place has been completed you can play with the plating all you want. That is how I did my tuna. It looks like a lot of work but really it is nothing.