I cook at home to save on Weight Watchers® points (goal: the healthier Anne) and to save money (goal: the fiscally responsible Anne). I am a recipe cook and try to incorporate one into my diet about once a week. I was thumbing through one of my cookbooks for this past weekend’s recipe when it occurred to me (cue trumpet flourish), “This is an opportunity to push my boundaries!” I rushed to my red folder (no kidding folks, I keep them in a red folder) of Ambitious Recipes to Try. You know the kind: those recipes you tear out of magazines, or you asked your friend to send you at that one dinner party, or you printed off the Food Network© website after watching too many cooking shows. (For those of you who don’t know the kind, just stay with me.)
I found my Ambitious Recipe: “
Grilled Tuna Rolls.” I’d been watching the Barefoot Contessa and it was (a) a recipe that looked good and (b) a recipe that I actually thought I could cook. Let’s face it, Ina Garten is the sort of on-TV cook that uses parchment paper and herb grinders and several mixing bowls (goodness all those mixing bowls!). She has that Martha Stewart air about her as she trims fresh sage into yet another mixing bowl for the squab she’s grilling for her director friend who’ll be stopping by her garden party at sunset. The lady’s league ain’t mine. My one-by-one apartment doesn’t have enough storage for that many mixing bowls.
But the grilled tuna rolls were enticing and I’ve got a George Foreman© grill and a dream of being a food critic.
So here goes, Anne’s take on the Barefoot Contessa’s “Grilled Tuna Rolls.”
Health Factor: A friendly 5 pointer. Grilled tuna and avocado tossed in a light dressing on a wheat bun makes this a healthy option for most diets.
Money: I live in San Antonio and not the coastal fairyland where Ina knows her fishmonger by name. The fresh 1-pound tuna steak from the seafood counter weighed heavily on this week’s grocery budget at a whopping $15.00. I also had to purchase the sesame seeds (leave-out-able) and the wasabi (no regrets), which aren’t frequent contenders in other recipes. This was a definite splurge.
Ease: Easy peasy as a box of instant mac-and-cheesy. Grilling the tuna was a breeze on my George Foreman. The required cool down time of the tuna gave a nice opportunity to mix the dressing. Everything else (bun, arugula, avocado) was pretty much good to go.
Variations: I don’t really like onions. (I know, how can I be a food critic if I don’t like onions?!) I bravely added the scallions but the red onions were politely declined. To make up the fiber content of the missing onions, I added diced water chestnuts because (1) I love them, (2) I thought they would complement the tuna because in my mind those two things are both kind of Asian-y, and (3) I thought they would be a good crunch—like the original onions—that would be an interesting contrast to the avocado and tuna. I do not regret this substitution. It probably made the dish a bit blander, but it was good for my palate.
Also, and this was unplanned, I didn’t buy one large Hass avocado but, instead, two petite Hass avocados. One of the two had turned slightly and therefore was only partly usable. As a consequence, my avocado to tuna ratio was not quite as I hoped for.
Appearance: Not as delightful as Ina’s display on the show. This was mostly due to the fact that in my reality the tuna shreds as you cut it and the avocado is squishy. In her reality they were delightful blocks of contrasting color, not a tossed mess. Otherwise, the appearance of the meal was not too bad. I could serve this to people not related to me and expect them to eat it. (Note. The picture does not do my meal much justice. I’ve already added “Learn how to photograph food” to my list of goals.)
Taste: It was…um…weird. (No, not because of the water chestnuts.) I’ve eaten tuna sashimi before so I was sure that the rareness of the tuna would be no problem. However, there was an initial “eewww” reaction. I’m a firm believer that you should try something at least twice before you give up on it so I forged past the “eewww” and arrived, luckily, at “hmmmm.” This dish was definitely situated at the edge of my particular boundaries, but I was glad when I arrived at the destination.
Also, I piled on the arugula to have charming green leaves sprouting from my concoction. Arugula, if you don’t know, has a strong flavor. It is often included in the fancier tossed salads to give them a bit of zing. Its flavor is slightly bitter and, to me, what you would imagine green to taste like. The arugula overpowered the rest of the flavors initially. After my first bite I pruned a bit and that helped the situation. Later, in my leftovers, I left it out entirely and the sandwich became too bland. I say, use the arugula but in moderation
This might seem dumb, but I was a bit surprised when the first bite was cool. I, having actively taken part in the cooling process, should not have been surprised but—for some reason—I was expecting a warm tuna melt type of sandwich. (Despite all my efforts to the contrary.) This recipe is for a cool, limey tuna sandwich with a slight tang of spice. That’s what I got after the initial shock of not eating the sandwich I hadn’t made.
The grilled tuna rolls were, as Ina suggested, the cool sort of tuna salad sandwich that you would find at a picnic, but with an Asian flair. The avocado was a very nice complement to the rare tuna and I wish I had more of it in my version. The meal was flavorful and filling, while being just a tad funky.
Clean-up: The grill for the tuna, one bowl to mix the dressing, one bowl to mix everything, and a plate to serve. Not bad at all.
Leftovers: If kept properly in a sealable container in the fridge, tuna salad can last up to a week. General consensus, however, is that the salad's flavor starts to lose some of its charm after two to three days.
Despite all the lime juice in the dressing, the avocados turned brown in my plastic container. To prevent this (it works with guacamole), squeeze some more lime juice over the top of the mixture and then lay cling wrap across the top, preventing as much air exposure as possible. Next time you open the mixture, give every thing a good stir and that will distribute the added lime juice throughout.
Other than that, the mix was great the next night. I enjoyed my second sandwich more since I knew what to expect (and I went easy on the arugula).
Repeatability: This is the sort of recipe I would make to impress other people on an occasional basis, but I know that it’s not going to become one of my go-to standards. Good for a summer picnic, but not necessarily an ordinary Tuesday night dinner.
New thing I learned: The recipe calls for wasabi powder but in my local store’s Asian section I could only find wasabi paste in a tube (think travel size toothpaste). A quick Google told me that wasabi paste is made from mixing a little wasabi powder with water. If you have an option, the powder stores longer, but the paste requires no extra steps if you are having a sushi emergency. Either works for this recipe.
