Tuskany Tuna

Here’s my 2008 spring recipe, quantum for 4 people:

4 big tuna steaks
Salt and pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
Some olive oil
2 sticks celery
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
100g black olives
500g peeled tomatoes
1 roll of parsley
2 bay leafs
2 spoons of capers
20 leafs of basil
100ml dry white wine

Pour the lemon juice over the tuna steaks, put them back into the fridge.

Cut the celery into small pieces, chop onion, garlic and parsley. Also cut the tomatoes into little pieces, cut the olives in half and take out the stone. Steam the celery, onion, garlic and parsley in olive oil. Add the tomatoes, olives, capers, bay leafs and the wine. Let it boil gently for at least 30 minutes, but no longer than 45 minutes.

Spice the tuna with salt and pepper, fry it for five minutes on each side. Chop the basil, but not too small.

Sprinkle the basil over the fish, serve it with the vegetable sauce. For a side-dish, serve fresh bread or salted potatoes.

Notes: The original recipe says ‘Swordfish’ instead of tuna – also on the pictures you see swordfish. To my horror I noticed that the swordfish is a highly endangered species. So please, order tuna or porbeagle and let the swordfish live!

Desert: Spicy chocolate cubes

200g dark chocolate
100g milk chocolate
100g butter
250g oatcakes
60g walnuts
50g raisins
100g dry apricots or cranberries
100g molasses (not essentially needed – makes it just much sweeter)
Salt (I use Fleur de Sel)

Grind the oatcakes (not too fine, needs to be crunchy), chop the walnuts. Put both aside for the moment.

Melt chocolate and butter, be careful that things don’t start to boil! Add all other ingredients and stir. Pour mass into a flat baking pan and gently pour salt over it – only very little!!! Let the mass cool out, cut into cubes and eat. Don’t forget to brush your teeth after that...

I don’t use the molasses, it only makes things much sweeter. Also I add some barberries to the cranberries. Try it out!

Picture by courtesey of ET. Thank you and S. for 2 days wonderful company!