Maguro many ways – Maguro Tartar, Maguro Carpaccio with Salsa Cruda, Maguro-Natto Don, and Maguro Yamakake

For this past Valentines Day, we picked up a nice 1 pound piece of Maguro in LA. A nice splurge for us. I was going to come home and do the usual thing……

The Missus however, had other ideas, and wanted something new. I was told that there would be no more this:

And don't even think about making that:

I guess I'd been going "to the well" much too often, and I don't blame the Missus of being tired of poke and crusted maguro….. So what to do?

While staring at my Maguro, some ideas entered my mind. We'd stretch the block into four dishes, starting with some fancier dishes for lunch, followed by some more traditional preparations for dinner. This would even solve the "tuna dilemma"…… just about everytime we'd buy Maguro, there would be a nice portion that is pristine, dark and deep red. But there's always a bit of the tough and fibrous parts as well. By planning out the meal a bit, I could utilize the maguro more efficiently.

So for lunch, I made a Maguro Tartar, using my basic shoyu poke recipe, but utilizing a finer cut for my fish.

I mixed about 3 ounces of finely diced maguro with good quality shoyu, a few drops of ginger juice, 1/2 clove of garlic grated, 3 tablespoons of red onion brunoise, and sea salt. I placed the mixture in a clean Coral tuna can, and topped it with 1/2 small avocado diced, followed by 1/2 roma tomato, which was seeded, and diced.

The can was inverted over a plate, and the whole thing was "coaxed out". I garnished the dish with ground chili, scallions, and wasabi tobiko.

For my other dish, I decided to do a tuna carpaccio, topped with greens and a salsa cruda.

I made two plates, so I used about another 3 ounces of maguro, a total of four slices which I placed between plastic wrap and pounded paper thin.

The salsa cruda consisted of red onion brunoise, capers which were rinsed, than coarsely chopped, cucumber brunoise, kalamata olives brunoise, 1/2 serrano chili minced, and tomato brunoise. This was mixed with some good quality extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice for some acid. Sea salt and some lemon zest completed the salsa cruda. The paper thin slices of tuna were placed gently on the plate, topped with the salsa cruda, and finished off with mixed greens tossed with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Served with some toasted baguette, this filled out our fairly light lunch.

For dinner we wanted something more substantial, and the Missus decided She wanted Maguro-Natto Don, a tuna and natto rice bowl. The Missus and I often order this from Izakaya Sakura.

This was pretty easy, and I think you can figure out what is what here.

I did flavor the maguro with some soy sauce, sea salt, and ginger juice. The natto rested on some shiso leaves. I heated the natto slightly and added a touch of soy sauce, and topped it with a chiffonade of shiso leaves and shredded nori. Dabs of both prepared wasabi and hot mustard were provided for extra zip.

My dinner consisted of themaguro yamakake and rice. I used the lower grade portion of the maguro, which I mixed with soy sauce and scallions. I topped the whole thing with a good amount of grated yamaimo, which made it nice and "snotty". A topping of shredded nori and a dab of hot mustard finished things off. This was gooey-snotty heaven, and the yamaimo even tasted a bit sweet.

 Grated yamaimo (tororo) is fairly substantial, and combined with the maguro and rice, was a filling, and satisfying end to the block of tuna.

So 1 pound of tuna, four dishes, two meals, and undoubtedly an increased mercury level………