Ingredients

  • Soy-Mustard Sauce:
  • 1/4 cup Coleman's mustard powder
  • 2 tablespoons hot water
  • 2 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce
  • (See recipe for Beurre Blanc below)
  • Blackening Spice
  • 1 Ahi tuna fillet, about 2 inches thick and 5 inches long (about 8 ounces)
  • 11/2 tablespoons paprika
  • 1/4 tablespoon cayenne powder
  • 1/4 tablespoon pure red chile powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
  • 1/2 tablespoon ground sandalwood (optional)
  • Garnish
  • 2 or 3 tablespoons red pickled ginger
  • 1/2 teaspoon black sesame seeds
  • 1 ounce Japanese spice sprouts or sunflower sprouts (top 2 inches only)
  • 1 tablespoon seeded and diced yellow bell pepper (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon cucumber, cut into matchsticks (optional)

Method

  • To prepare the Soy-Mustard Sauce, mix the mustard powder and hot water together to form a paste. Let sit for a few minutes to allow the flavor and heat to develop. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, mix together, and strain through a fine sieve. Chill in the refrigerator.
  • Warm the Beurre Blanc in a double boiler (see below for recipe).
  • For the Tuna:
  • Mix all the blackening spices
  • together on a plate, and dredge the Ahi covering all sides. Heat a lightly oiled cast-iron skillet and sear the Ahi over high heat to the desired doneness (about 15 seconds per side for rare to 1 minute per side for medium-rare). Cut into 16 thin slices.
  • For each serving, arrange 4 slices of the Ahi in a pinwheel or cross shape on the plate. Ladle a little of the Soy-Mustard Sauce in two opposing quadrants between the tuna, and ladle the Beurre Blanc in the other two quadrants. To garnish, put a small mound of the red pickled ginger on the Beurre Blanc on either side, and sprinkle the sesame seeds over the Soy-Mustard Sauce. Arrange the spice sprouts, bell pepper, and cucumber at the very center of this pinwheel.