The Pacific
Bluefin tuna tataki, ponzu-sesame, daikon, wakame & shiso
Draft recipe. This method has not yet been cooked and timed against a finished box by our chef. Times and weights will be confirmed before the first Founding 100 delivery.
In the box
- ·1 × 320 g bluefin tuna loin block, sashimi grade
- ·Ponzu-sesame sachet
- ·Daikon, julienned
- ·Wakame salad portion
- ·Shiso leaves
- ·Black and white sesame
From your kitchen
- ·Neutral oil
- ·Your sharpest knife — genuinely the whole dish
- ·A heavy pan
- ·Ice and a bowl of water
Method
- 01
Set up an ice bath before you start
Bowl of water, plenty of ice. You will need it within 90 seconds of starting to cook, and there is no time to make it later.
- 02
Dry the loin and oil it lightly
Pat it completely dry. Oil the tuna itself rather than the pan — it gives a more even sear and less smoke.
- 03
Sear 20–30 seconds per face. No more
Pan as hot as you can get it. Sear each of the four long faces for 20–30 seconds — you are looking for a bare few millimetres of cooked edge and a completely raw ruby centre. Bluefin is being seared for aroma, not cooked. If more than about 5 mm has turned pale, it has gone too far.
- 04
Straight into the ice bath
Thirty seconds in the ice water. This stops the carry-over cooking dead and keeps the centre raw and cold. Then dry it thoroughly again — a wet block will not slice cleanly.
- 05
Slice across the grain, 1 cm
Sharpest knife, one long pulling stroke per slice — do not saw. Look for the direction of the muscle fibres and cut across them. A blunt knife tears tuna and it will look like it.
- 06
Plate
Fan the slices, daikon and wakame alongside, shiso, sesame scattered, and the ponzu poured at the table.
Watch this
This is raw fish. Keep it below 4 °C until the moment it is seared, serve it immediately, and do not keep leftovers. If anyone at the table is pregnant, immunocompromised, elderly or very young, they should not eat this dish — cook a different one for them rather than cooking this one through.
At the table
- —Dress at the table, not in the kitchen. Ponzu sitting on raw tuna will cure it grey within minutes.
- —Serve cold, on cold plates — the only dish here that wants them.
- —Slice at the last possible moment.
The Founding 100
We compose. Your kitchen cooks.
The Pacific arrives raw, portioned and chilled, with this card in the box. AED 350 per person.