Giving Up Red Meat for Lent? Try This Tuna Steak.

Yes, Home With Mandy takes requests! I received a sweet e-mail from Benita who has given up red meat for lent and request I post a vegetarian or fish dish. Well here you go Benita, I have this great fish marinade that worked exceptionally well on tuna steak.

Tuna is high in valued omega 3, it has a "steak" like texture and is cooked very similar to red meat. The key here, like many other steaks, is NOT to overcook it. In fact, most people (me included) like tuna steak served rare. That is red on the inside and seared on the outside. But eating healthy doesn't mean we have to give up flavor, so let me show you this (easily customizable) marinade recipe that I tried and REALLY loved.

There is the pink tuna steak at bottom left in a zip top baggie. I also used fresh ginger (that I keep frozen in a zip top bag in the freezer door), sesame oil, olive oil, d'Oni Happy Together, red pepper flakes, salt, pepper and fresh cilantro.

You probably have much of this in your fridge although the d'Oni sauce is a bit unusual. I bought a few of these sauces at my local grocery store after reading a review on hungry-girl.com which shared that d'Oni products are all-natural & preservative-free and healthy-lifestyle & weight management friendly. Happy Together is a blend of sweet mandarin oranges joined together with the perfect amount of chili and garlic. If I didn't have this sauce, I would have added something else with a kick like an asian chili-garlic hot sauce, or a teaspoon of garlic and a dash of soy sauce.

I didn't want it to be too spicy, but this little pinch of red pepper flakes will heat up the marinade just enough.

Adding the marinade to a zip top bag with the fish makes this an easy and clean way to marinade the meat.

Next, I chopped up fresh cilantro and tossed in.

This is two tablespoons of sesame oil (distinctive asian flavor in this oil) and one tablespoon of the Happy Together sauce.

I gave the marinade a good pinch of sea salt and a couple turns of the pepper grinder.

Sliced and diced about a tablespoon and a half of fresh ginger.

Mix everything together by squishing around your bag of marinade with the fish inside. I put this in the fridge and let it sit for an hour before cooking.

In comes the olive oil. Just a little in my non-stick pan, heated to medium-high. Then the tuna steak goes in and I cook just a few minutes on one side before flipping and pouring a couple tablespoons of the marinade on top of the browned side.

We like to eat the tuna on the rare side, so the total cook time for this entree was about eight minutes. Talk about a QUICK meal!

I served this with steamed asparagus for a super healthy week night dinner.

The marinade turned out great, and I was surprised at how mellow it actually was. I added several "spicy" ingredients like red pepper flakes and ginger, but maybe the fish needed longer to absorb those flavors. The orange and garlic flavors in the Happy Together sauce were the most profound, making this a lovely asian inspired tuna steak meal.

There are many ways to cook asparagus. The easiest in my opinion (and what I did here) was snap the bottoms off a handful of asparagus (they snap naturally above the bottom woody area of the stalk), then rinse under cold water. I lay them in a shallow dish, like corning ware and add just enough water to cover the bottom. Give it a lid and pop in the microwave for a couple minutes (2-3 minutes depending on your microwave.) The water gets hot and steams the asparagus perfectly so they are warmed through but still crunchy.

I'm giving up sleep for lent. Well actually I'm going to seriously commit to waking up early every morning to go to the gym, and it's not just a lent thing...I'm doing this for the long haul.

Oh, and I have to tell you about a really cute giveaway at Sweet Tea Diaries. This SWEET giveaway ends Monday (March 2nd) at 11:59 pm Pacific Time, so scoot over there quickly to enter.

Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger Shiitake Cream Sauce

Remember last week when I posted about the Tuna Steak with Shiitake Mushroom sauce that Dave made for our Iron Chef party? Well it was so good I wanted to try and do it myself for Jim. Although Jim isn’t a fan of mushrooms I thought I would chop everything up finely so the sauce wasn’t chunky.

This recipe turned out to be a huge winner. The only drawback is the amount of fresh ingredients you need on hand and also the price of the tuna steak. I bought the highest quality they offered at Whole Foods, and paid $18 for a 1 lb filet. I don’t think you need sushi grade to make a delicious dish, I should have (and will do this next time for sure) bought the yellow fin tuna for $14 a lb. Really for Jim and I, just the one large fillet was enough for both of us to share.

You can see the complete recipe here where I posted about the first place recipe. Below are the pictures of MY journey.

Simply season one side with pepper.
Sear for two minutes each side.

The amazing mouth watering sauce fore the tuna consist of: Green onions, cilantro, ginger, garlic, shiitake mushrooms, soy sauce, whipping cream, white wine, butter and lime juice.
This is my very first experience with mushrooms in the kitchen. I don't cook with them, the texture grosses me out. I bit into one of these however and thought it tasted okay. I didn't vomit so maybe I like mushrooms. They say our taste buds change every 7 years.
Everything in the pot. Stirring to thicken. This is so wonderful and creamy and very very rich. I could bath in it.
We almost ate the last bite and then I remembered to take a picture. It was late when I took this photo, sorry no natural light and I was in a hurry.

All About Ginger

A neighbor of mine invited me to join a local iron chef competition on Saturday. It would be a small gathering of friends who , like me, enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. The key ingredient – Ginger! I needed to find a recipe that could easily serve 10-12 people and that I could make ahead and bring to the party with me. After searching the internet, I narrowed my recipes down to two winners. Homemade Ginger Ale and White Chocolate and Ginger Ice Cream. I thought both were very clever and decided that I couldn’t choose just one – I resolved to bring a drink and dessert.

Homemade Ginger Ale
Ginger Water
1 cup peeled, finely chopped ginger (I did not peel the ginger, which probably is the reason my ginger water came out brown. No biggie)
2 cups water

Simple Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

Club soda
Lime juice
Lime wedges


Make Ginger Water
I started by boiling two cups of water and adding a cup of finely chopped ginger. Reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes then remove from heat and let it sit for 20 minutes and steep. Strain liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Discard ginger pieces.

Make Simple Syrup
This is so freaking easy, I don’t know why I don’t have a jar of this in my fridge at all times. You can use simple syrup not only to make cocktails, but sweeten tea, brush over cakes before frosting. All you do is boil a cup of water and then stir in an equal measure of sugar. Turn off heat and set aside to let it cool. Yup, it’s that easy. It will keep in the fridge for a while, although I bet you use it up quickly. I’m growing mint in my herb garden right now and looking forward to muddling my own mojitos with this simple syrup and some rum. Anyways, back to my Ginger Ale.

Make the Beverage
Mix ½ cup of ginger water with 1/3 cup of simple syrup and ½ cup of club soda. Add a squeeze of lime and serve in a tall glass.


This was a great and refreshing beverage. I though if it taste good now then I bet it would be BETTER with a little rum.

Yes, this makes it taste like a ginger mojito! I searched the web and found these other very interesting takes on a ginger mojito.

Batter-Splattered: Blueberry Ginger Mojitos, kill two birds with one stone by brilliantly making your simple syrup taste like ginger.
Chilefire’s Lemongrass and Ginger infused Frozen Mojito, this sounds like more work than what I did today but I bet the pay off is worth it. Yum!

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Now for my next trick, I will be making homemade White Chocolate and Fresh Ginger Ice Cream from David Lebovitz who wrote the book “The Perfect Scoop; Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments.” So he’s basically king of homemade ice cream. I got this recipe from THE BEST ya’ll.

White Chocolate and Fresh Ginger Ice Cream
3-inch piece fresh ginger
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups heavy cream
8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
5 large egg yolks


Slice the ginger thin, cover it with water in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook for 2 minutes. Drain away the water but return the blanched ginger to the pan.



Add the sugar, the milk and 1 cup of heavy cream to the saucepan and re-warm the mixture.

Cover and steep for at least an hour, or until you are satisfied with the ginger flavor.
An hour was plenty for me. I was in a hurry to get this made and in the ice cream maker so it would have time to sit in the freezer and thicken up before the 7 PM Challenge… I mean, 7 PM Party.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, then gradually add some of the ginger-infused cream mixture, whisking constantly as you pour in the warm cream. This is to temper the eggs.
Pour the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan and stir stir stir until you think your hand is going to fall off.

Cook over low heat, stirring constantly (I can only stir with my right hand, my left hand doesn’t do a very good job) and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula. This took me 15-20 minutes which I think is the longest I’ve ever had to do this. I wonder if the ginger pieces in the mixture kept it from thickening. Not sure. But keep stirring until it is thick.

Next, strain the custard into a bowl of chopped white chocolate, and stir until the chocolate is completely melted.

Discard the ginger. Add the remaining 1 cup of heavy cream and chill thoroughly. I set the bowl over an ice bath to speed it up.
Chill mixture thoroughly, then freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions. Even after the ice cream maker is through, you need to dump into a container and put it back in the freezer for a few hours, or overnight if you can, so the ice cream firms up.
I am serving this tonight with a piece of candied ginger on top. PRECIOUS!

The party at Jen and Daves was a huge success and we tasted some really delicious recipes made with ginger. I’ve asked everyone to send me their recipes and I will post them here on my blog. Here are photos of the various dishes.

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And the winning dish was this Pan-Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shitake Cream Sauce made by Dave.
6 6-ounce tuna steaks, each about 1 inch thick

2 tablespoons peanut oil
3 tablespoons butter

1/3 cup thinly sliced green onions

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

2 tablespoons finely chopped peeled fresh ginger

4 garlic cloves, chopped

8 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced

6 tablespoons soy sauce

1 1/2 cups whipping cream

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Lime wedges (optional)

Fresh cilantro sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 200°F. Sprinkle 1 side of tuna steaks with pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Place tuna steaks, pepper side down, in hot oil and sear 2 minutes. Turn tuna over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 2 minutes for rare.

Transfer tuna to rimmed baking sheet; keep warm in oven.

Add butter, sliced green onions, cilantro, ginger and chopped garlic to same skillet and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in mushrooms and soy sauce and simmer 30 seconds. Add whipping cream and simmer until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Spoon sauce onto plates; arrange tuna atop sauce. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

Read original recipe online here at Epicurious. Stay tuned for more of these excellent Ginger recipes from the September Iron Chef Austin Challenge.