Ahi

We ordered a luscious fuchsia yellowfin steak for our weekly fish delivery, and I tried to make a dinner that did justice to the beauty of the flesh of this fish. With sashimi-grade gorgeousness, especially a big hunk like this, my normal policy is to break it apart and do different things with it to avoid plate fatigue. Even melt-in-your-mouth fish or Wagyu beef can get lose its heavenly edge after five or six bites, so turning one ingredient into a mini-tasting menu usually makes for a more pleasurable experience. And pleasure is what delicacies are all about.

To begin, because a hungry family is a cranky family, I busted out some hand rolls. I made some caramelized maitake mushrooms and leeks for an appetizer, but since we were already at defcon four I decided at the last minute to just fold the browned, mushroomy goodness into the (leftover) brown rice and use that as the sushi substrate. Tuna, rice, wild garlic chives and/or scallions, and the mayonnaise-sriracha blend that is the bête noire for so many traditionalists made some pretty damn fine spicy tuna rolls.

Once these tasty treats had quieted the horde, I moved on to the main course. There was some salad, too, but it was not alas recorded for posterity. Normally I like to take all the fish trimmings and make them into a lovely tartare, which lately I’ve been searing on one side to make for a more complex and satisfying flavor profile, but this time around I just sorta punted and made tuna maki, tuna sashimi, and more hand rolls (by request, and that is real wasabi in the background, which helped). It was not the meal that it could have been, but it was plenty good all the same. It’s hard, but I have no choice but to accept that the food I want to make is mostly out of my reach; however desperately I may want to, real life demands too much time for me to spend half the day making dinner.