spicy grilled tuna Archives

Pierre Franey's grilled tuna recipe, the best grilled tuna ever — Photo: Nancy Young

Grilled Tuna Steaks

If you don’t like fish, this is the fish recipe for you. If you do like fish, especially tuna, this is definitely the recipe for you.

These spicy grilled tuna steaks, coated with sesame seeds, curry powder, black pepper, and anise, come from the great Pierre Franey (1921–1996). His recipe appeared in the New York Times and Chicago Tribune in August 1992, and it may well be the greatest tuna recipe ever written.

I’ve made these sesame-crusted tuna steaks many times over the years, something I rarely do. Hell, I almost never make anything more than once.

The tuna is grilled briefly, leaving the center rare, then sliced and served over mixed greens tossed with a lively Dijon mustard vinaigrette. It’s an elegant meal that takes surprisingly little time to prepare.

Continue reading “Grilled Tuna Steaks Recipe”

A Note About Vintages

Although you will see vintage dates throughout Winervana, I don’t put too much importance on them. Major producers these days strive for a consistent style, and largely succeed. (Especially in California, aided by the usually even climate there.) For instance, when shopping for a particular wine, if you have a choice between a current release and one that’s a few years old, there will certainly be differences in price and the character of the wine. But upon release, those two examples of the same wine are likely to be quite similar, especially for New World producers, who often enjoy more reliably consistent weather than Old World producers do. (Of course, global climate change may disrupt things for everybody.)

Wine Enthusiast has an interesting post about this here.