Grilled Ahi Tuna Steaks with Pesto Butter

Food photography is an acquired skill… that I have yet to acquire.

Why haven’t I mentioned anything about food lately? Is it because we’ve been too:
a) busy to cook as much as we ought to,
b) drained to be creative about cooking,
c) short of cash to play around with nice ingredients, or
d) all of the above?

Take a wild guess.

Tonight, however, is a different story – I’ve got the time, inspiration, and the ingredients! Time – It’s a Friday! Inspiration – Great protein and the desire to clean out my fridge. Ingredients – My coworker went fishing off the coast of Mexico last week and was kind enough to give me two tuna steaks. I’m pretty stoked about this because it’s yellowfin (my favorite and often too pricey for us) and because this fish was swimming around less than a week ago. This is way fresher than anything in the grocery store because it was caught on a chartered boat (fish are caught for sport, therefore not jammed in nets and packed into the bottom of a commercial boat as it continues to fish for a couple more days before heading to land) and because the transportation time was drastic shortened by him just bringing it home (no cross-country, refrigerated truck trip).

So. For to make the delicious noms now. Marinated, grilled ahi tuna steak served with pesto butter with grilled raspberry chipotle corn on the cob and a small oil and vinegar side salad.

Only our second time grilling out on the patio – it still feels exciting and new.

 I marinated these precious steaks very simply – in olive oil with salt, pepper, dill, a little original Hot Squeeze, and a dash of lime juice. I shucked the corn and marinated it with olive oil, a dash of lemon juice and raspberry chipotle sauce (you can look up a recipe to make your own or just buy it).

The salad was very plain, with shredded cheese and homegrown tomatoes. The dressing was just the oil and dregs from an industrial-sized jar of artichoke hearts with some tarragon vinegar, Italian seasonings and a dash of lime juice. To make the pesto butter, I melted some butter stirred in some pesto, poured into an ice cube tray for little (space invader-shaped) pats of butter.

Supesu Inbuttah… ahem, Supesu Inbeda!

The salad got a C (lack of effort and ingredients), the corn a B-, and the tuna an delicious A. The pesto butter was an A+. I definitely just ate a pat or two plain for no reason, it was just that good. I definitely plan to experiment with other flavors of butter.

One more shot of the space invader… I may or may not be obsessed with these now.

That’s it. It was fun to actually cook and make stuff up and have fun with it. And I got to clear out the fridge a bit – the giant jar of artichoke hearts, the raspberry chipotle container, and a lime juice bottle all met their end. And it was just neat to have something so fresh. It must be nice to live on the coast and have fresh seafood all the time. Sounds dreamy. As long as you have nice insurance and a place to go when there is a hurricane, presumably.

On that note, I hope all my east-coasters stay safe and dry. Good luck to everyone – especially to my family in NY. And to my cousin Jason and his fiancee Aurora; their wedding is tomorrow in Rhode Island. I wish them and their guests favorable timing and safe travels!

emily

Nerd. Foodie. Gamer. Homecook. Perpetual planner. Gardener. Aspiring homesteader. Direct response graphic designer. I use too many damn commas.

5 thoughts on “Grilled Ahi Tuna Steaks with Pesto Butter”

  1. Looks so good, E! I want to eat pats of butter like that too! And so impressed at using up the last bits of things in the fridge – I really think that's the sign of a good cook, someone who can work with what they have and make it delicious!

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