In fine places, I’ve tasted seared tuna, but this is superior to all of them. Wasabi has a lot of heat, but this cooking process manages to almost completely eliminate it, leaving only the flavor. Very, very good.
| Prep Time: | 5 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Total Time: | 40 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 10 fluid ounces white wine
- ¼ cup minced shallots
- 1 tablespoon wasabi paste, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 cup unsalted butter, cubed
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
- 1 cup chopped cilantro leaves
- 6 (6 ounce) fresh tuna steaks, 1 inch thick
Instructions
- Combine the white wine vinegar, white wine and shallots in a small saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons. Strain out shallot and discard, return liquid to the pan.
- Stir the wasabi and soy sauce into the reduction in the pan. Over low heat, gradually whisk in butter one cube at a time allowing the mixture to emulsify. Be careful not to let the mixture boil. When all of the butter has been incorporated, stir in cilantro, and remove from heat. Pour into a small bowl, and set aside.
- Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush tuna steaks with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place in the hot skillet, and sear for 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Be careful not to overcook, this fish should be served still a little pink in the center. Serve with sauce.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 533 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 5 g |
| Cholesterol | 158 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 41 g |
| Saturated Fat | 20 g |
| Sodium | 278 mg |
| Sugars | 1 g |
| Fat | 35 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Amazing. I will need to watch my tuna a little closer next time. It was a bit overdone. The sauce is drinkable, it’s so delicious!
I made this exactly like the recipe said. omg, it is soooooo good! I would cut back on the butter and I didnt cook my ahi as long, maybe a minute on each side! so good!!
We loved it! The wasabi got a bit lost with the cooking process, and I think I even tripled it (kept adding as the sauce cooked!) but we served it with a very spicy jalapeno-sesame spinach that was a beautiful contrast. I may add some other sort of spice next time in addition to the wasabi, or just make sure that the side is spicy like it was today. Beautiful dish. That sauce will be great over other things, too!
A thousand times yes! The sauce is fantastic. To cook the salmon we seared on a grate over the charcoal chimney, making sure it’s full and roaring hot, like a steak fire. Did 40 seconds a side (we had 4 8oz tuna steaks), reference Alton Brown’s method on cooking tuna over the chimney.
My family loves it. 1. rice wine vinegar 2. minced white onion 3. 1/4 cup Kizami Wasabi relish 4. omitted the cilantro, I don’t like it
It is soooo good!!! And easy!
Fantastic! We will make this again and again. Many of the previous reviews mentioned using only half the butter that the recipe calls for. I decided I would make a judgement call once half of the butter was in the sauce (there is a limit to how much fat you can incorporate into an emulsion before it breaks). I had a beautiful, smooth and silky sauce at that point so I decided to stick with half. The flavor was amazing so I don’t think I would want to make it any other way in the future.
This the second time I made this recipe and both times my guests raved about how good it was. One even stated that it was the best food she’s ever eaten. It is very good. Made even better by the fact that I catch my own yellowfin tuna.
The sauce is wonderful. I really thought there would be some heat but the butter takes it right out. Just left with the flavor of the wasabi.
I made this for 5 people and all loved it!
Favorite!
Delicious
Fabulous! The sauce was exceptional! And great for my Keto diet. I’ll make it again!
We had a nice dinner for two with one, beautiful 12 ounce tuna steak. We modified the recipe by using garden basil in the reduction and a warm salad of fresh roasted corn, pear tomatoes and avocado in an apple cider vinaigrette. Amazing.
I have made this several times, so yummy. Like others I doubled the wasabi and cut butter in half. It makes a great low carb meal by serving with cauliflower rice and Haricot Verts.
Great way to make tuna. We seared it in a cast iron skillet. I would make sure it is dryer next time as it didn’t really brown up as I expected, but did sear pretty nicely on the outside while pink on the inside. Sauce was great – it had a little kick to it and added flavor to the tuna.
I have basically no cooking skills when it comes to seafood, and I was able to make this with success. I followed the recommendations of the reviewers and halved the butter…I also had to remove the pan from the burner a few times to keep the sauce from boiling, as it looked like it wanted to caramelize. I served it with Farmhouse long grain herb and butter rice. My husband added a bit more wasabi to the sauce, but otherwise, he loved it, which is saying a lot as he is a seafood snob!
I was having dinner guests so I decided to try the recipe as the reviews were so great. I used 1/2 cup of the butter as advised by other readers. I tried the recipe twice at one hour each time I tried. Both times I could not get the sauce to finally emulsify. I consider myself a very experienced cook. If I had served this recipe to my guests, I would have (as they say) ‘been run out of town.’ What did I do so wrong.
This sauce is wonderful. The combination of ingredients take on a sophisticated flavor of its own; I would be hard pressed to identify everything that goes into it. My husband loved it, and he would have never tried anything with wasabi and cilantro! Granted, the primary ingredient is butter, but it doesn’t take much sauce to impart a very complimentary flavor to the tuna. The only changes I made were to leave the shallots in (frankly, I let the wine reduce too far) and I used wasabi powder I had on hand (roughly 1/2 the amount of the paste called for in the recipe). Still a winner!
I think more wasabi would have improved the recipe!
This was amazing – my husband said “Definitely a Do Again!” I did modify a bit since I decided to make it when it was already too late to go get fresh cilantro or shallots… and I didn’t use the salt in the tuna coating due to personal preference but still SO GOOD!!! Additionally, we only had 3 eating so I halved the recipe and couldn’t justify a whole 1/2 cup of butter for the 3 of us so I only used a 1/4 cup. Still incredible – maybe more so. :^)