In The Kitchen With...Chef Luis Arce Mota

Chef Mota, who helms the fabulous restaurant Ofrenda, was kind enough to pass this scrumpdilly recipe for tuna steaks along to Next magazine--and in turn, I am further sending it along to the readers of Evenings With Peter! Do enjoy!

Atún Adobado a la Parilla con Chile Pulla y Salsa Mexicana con Espinaca
(marinated, grilled tuna with Mexican salsa and sautéed spinach)
Adapted from Luis Arce Mota’s menu at Ofrenda ~ Cocina Mexicana

Ingredients
Marinated Tuna
2 6-8 oz. yellowfin tuna steaks
1 pulla chile
2 pasilla chiles
1 ancho chile
1 tablespoon coriander seed
16 cloves garlic
1/8 teaspoon cumin
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
5/8 cup canola oil
1/8 teaspoon ground chile de arbol

Mexican Salsa
2 large, ripe and firm plum tomatoes, diced
½ small red onion, diced
½ Serrano pepper, minced
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
Juice of 1 lemon
4 cups baby spinach

Method
Remove seeds from the pulla, pasilla and ancho chiles. Toast chiles lightly for about 2 minutes, taking care not to burn them. Tear the chiles into small pieces and add them to the coriander seed, 6 cloves of garlic, cumin, black pepper and 1/8 cup canola oil and put into blender and blend to a slightly textured consistency. Rub sauce into tuna steaks and refrigerate for 3 hours.

To make the Mexican salsa, put diced tomatoes into a bowl and season with salt. Add diced red onion, minced Serrano pepper, chopped cilantro, and lemon juice. Let rest for 10 minutes at room temperature, and then mix all ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate.

Take ½ cup canola oil and remaining 10 cloves of garlic, making sure the garlic is immersed in the oil and put in a small pan. Cook at low temperature until the oil is infused by the garlic,and the garlic has become very soft, taking care not to burn the garlic. Strain the oil and put aside. This will be the oil used to sautée the spinach. About 15 minutes before serving, remove Mexican salsa and tuna from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature.

Pre-heat a grill until very hot. Place marinated tuna steaks on grill and grill each side for 1-2 minutes. The outside should be seared and the center should be warm and rare. Sautée spinach with previously infused garlic oil with a pinch of chile de arbol for 30 seconds. Put spinach in middle of the plate and the grilled tuna on top of the spinach, and garnish the tuna with the Mexican salsa.

Serves 2.

First published in part in Next magazine.

Tuna and Pickled Onion Crostini

Tuna fish! I've always loved a good tuna fish sandwich with thinly sliced nickels of Kosher dill or perhaps bread and butter pickles tucked in--and of course a few fistfuls of Fritos on the side, with maybe a Pepsi. Here is a recipe for tuna with pickled onions, gherkins and capers meant to be spread on crostini that I also think should just be hunkered down between two slices of fresh rye bread layered with alfalfa sprouts, shredded lettuce, screaming ripe tomato, and creamy avocado! I'd never had much luck with making satisfying tuna salad myself until last year (read here about my Tuna - Surprise! from June) but this one too is an easy winner, with a jaunty touch of Tuscany, courtesy of Saveur magazine.

P.S. I wholly skipped the red peppers.

P.P.S. When nobody's looking, just eat forkfuls of the tuna mixture out of the bowl it was made in or slather it on several Saltines.

Tuna and Pickled Onion Crostini

Adapted from Saveur.com

4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp. salt-packed capers, soaked, drained, and finely chopped

12 pickled cocktail onions, drained and roughly chopped

8 small gherkins, finely chopped

1 tbsp. red wine vinegar

1 tbsp. finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1 jarred roasted red pepper, chopped

2 5-oz. cans tuna in water, drained

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

28 thin slices baguette, toasted

1. Using a fork, combine the first seven ingredients in a medium bowl. Gently stir in the tuna and season with salt and pepper.
2. Spread 1 tbsp. of the mixture on each slice of toast and serve at room temperature.

SERVES 6 – 8

This recipe was originally published as an online exclusive at saveur.com/issue123