Seared Tuna Steak with Caper Wine Sauce
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tuna steaks (for either 2 full meals or an appetizer for 4)
- 1 shallot, diced
- 9 cloves garlic, minced
- ½ bottle chardonnay
- 1-2 sticks of butter
- Juice from 2 lemons (you may not need all of it)
- A big handful of parsley
- ½ bottle of capers
- Salt/pepper
- Cabbage, shredded (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a medium sized sauce pan over medium-high heat.
- Add the shallot and sauté for a couple of minutes.
- Add the garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook for another minute. Make sure to continuously stir so you don't burn the garlic.
- Add the chardonnay and reduce the sauce until it's a sauce like thickness (approx 3-5 minutes, but cook it down more if you prefer a thicker sauce),
- Once the sauce is thicker, remove the pan from the heat, and add the butter, a little at a time. Keep adding butter until you get a taste you like. I used 1 stick and 1 tablespoon of butter. My buddy uses 2 sticks of butter.
- Once you like the taste, slowly start to infuse the lemon juice. Continuously whisk the sauce as you slowly add the lemon juice. If you stop whisking, the sauce can break. While whisking, have a spoon in reaching distance so you can taste the sauce. Stop adding the lemon juice when you're happy with the taste. I did not use the juice from 2 lemons, but I used more than one.
- Now add the parsley and capers, stir.
- Taste for salt and pepper.
- While the sauce was reducing in the wine stage, I heated olive oil over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper both sides of the tuna steaks. When the pan is hot an the olive oil is slightly smoking, add the tuna steaks and sear for approx 2-3 minutes per side. You want to ensure the middle is still rare, but the edges have a nice brown color.
- When the tuna steak has finished cooking, serve it over cabbage (optional) and top with the Beurre blanc sauce.
Notes
This recipe is great for anyone who needs practice cooking by taste, rather than following a recipe.
My buddy Jeff gave me the following directions for the sauce. I had to wing the quantity of ingredients and keeping adding as I went until I liked the taste.
From Jeff:
Saute garlic and shallots (a ton of them) in a big pot with oil, salt, and pepper. Hit the pan with chardonnay, and let reduce. Once it's thicker, kill the heat and add the butter. Keep adding butter until you get the right taste Whisk it.
Infuse it with lemon juice......keep whisking while adding the lemon juice (the sauce will break if you don't continue whisking it). Add capers and whatever else you want.
Infuse it with lemon juice......keep whisking while adding the lemon juice (the sauce will break if you don't continue whisking it). Add capers and whatever else you want.