Tuna Steaks on Soba Noodles

Few days ago, I bought a piece of Tuna steak Sashimi grade quality. Lean and not sinewy at all which is fantastic. It's been quite awhile I didn't cook tuna but I ate a lot when I'm at Japanese Restaurants or any of those Kaiten style or fast sushi franchisees. Back home in my country, I used to frequent one called Sushi King but since few years ago they no longer serve Tuna dishes on their Kaiten and also their menu. I assumed it's the price of tuna that Sushi King discontinued it from their menus (?) So, now I'm a regular customer at Sakae Sushi. Tuna, unlike Salmon can't be farm bred... well, almost. They need to move about constantly even with their massive weight in the sea to have that lean and myoglobin enriched tissue muscles which were highly sought after. Most of this Tuna available in Europe supermarkets came from Indonesia. Sometimes, if lucky you can get air-flown tuna which is more expensive than frozen ones. This applied to air-flown Salmons as well. For Salmons, my preference is from Norway... of course, best if you can get genuine wild salmons! Now, we have major problems of overfishing tunas as well as other species of marine life... :-( It's not a joke or prediction. I think those inland lakes suffered the most from human exploitations. I haven't tasted farm-bred tunas even though there are farmers who bred bluefin tunas out there. For sure, the taste would be different and like farm bred salmons there would be health problems. Anyway, let's be prepared to taste farmed tunas which could be around the corner... :-|

In the mean time, here's a dish I cooked using the tuna chunk I bought from the wholesaler who had some left from a buyer because they need only some amount for their restaurant. 

Tuna Steaks On Soba Noodles

300 g Tuna Steak

200 g Soba Noodles (Buckwheat Noodle) 

6 stalks Spring Onions, sliced thinly

1 clove Garlic, crushed or finely chopped

3-4 tbl Fish Sauce

2 tbl Sweet Chilli Sauce

2 tsp Palm Sugar, grated or Soft Brown Sugar

1 tsp Sesame Oil

4 tbl Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 nos Lime- only for juice

20-30 g Coriander, chopped or Flat Parsley

Method:

1. To make dressing, place the lime juice, fish sauce, chili sauce, sugar, sesame oil and garlic in a small bowl. Mix well.

2. Heat olive oil in a griddle pan. Add the tuna steak and cook over high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or to your preferences. Remove and keep warm.

3. Cooked noodles according to manufacturer's instructions or boil it until softens. Drain well. In another bowl, add half of the dressing. half of spring onion  and coriander to the noodles and gently toss together.

4. Cut the tuna steaks into even cubes, slice it or roughly shred the steaks using  a fork like I did.

5. Place noodles in serving plates and top with tuna. Mix the remaining dressing with balance of spring onion and coriander. Drizzle over tuna and noodles. Garnish with lime wedges.

Note: If you prefer, you can serve the tuna steaks whole with noodles of your choice on the side. Besides using soba noodles, you can try other noodles as well like thin wheat noodles, egg noodles or pastas...

Enjoy!