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Ok, this isn’t barbecue, but I use the same equipment to make it! One of my favorite fish dishes is what I called "Chimney-Charred Tuna". It’s basically tuna tataki, which is Ahi tuna that is charred just around the outside and left raw in the middle. |
Before
you turn your nose up, try it sometime. I’ve had several people say
they didn’t want to eat raw fish that loved it when they tried it.
I’ll admit, though, that it’s pretty much stolen… I saw Alton Brown
do the same basic thing on his show, Good Eats.
The idea is to
get the outside charred a bit while leaving as much of the inside raw
as possible. First time I did this, I took the fish right out of the
refrigerator and put it over heat, but the inside was too cold, so I
learned to leave the fish out just long enough to get it to room
temperature, but not long enough for anything bad to happen.
I
first get a hunk of sushi grade tuna. Here in Ohio, it’s usually
frozen, which is fine if it was flash frozen; it’s really not hard to
find it. I thaw it out overnight in the refrigerator, then take it out
and coat it with black sesame seeds. Why black? I like the look of
it, and the seeds give a good texture difference. While the fish is
getting to room temp (maybe 20 minutes), I get half of a chimney of
coals ready.
Once the coals are ready, i put a small grate
right on top of the chimney. Cooking on the chimney means I’ve got
something like 1000 degrees of heat working for me. Since I usually
can only get slabs of tuna that are rectangular instead of square in
cross section, I char the top and bottom (biggest sides) until I hear
the seeds start to crackle… this is about 30 seconds, then I do the
other sides another 30 seconds to get all edges with a bit of a char.
You’ll have some seeds fall off and some small flames; don’t worry,
though.
Then I take a very sharp knife and slide the tuna very
thin. Fan it out for presentation, and serve it with the traditional
soy sauce and wasabi paste, with pickled ginger on the side. Adding a
little honey to the soy sauce isn’t bad, either.
It’s definitely good stuff!
