Firstly a big happy new year hugs to you all! 2011 should be more fun, better and full of love to you all!
Sorry for taking ages of updating my blog.. Basically, I truthfully, whole-heartedly blame this on the amount of coursework I've been having (I only have time for Facebook and Twitter, believe me or not but going online on MSN or Skype are for the sole purpose of asking questions about my never-ending coursework!)
Now that I'm free from all those horrible days (and horrible, crappy and unhealthy food), I'm back to cooking and blogging and taking awesome pictures too!
The good thing is that I recently bought myself a new camera. It's a digital compact camera (Pentax RZ10) with good optical zooms (precisely what I need) and so all the pictures from now on would look better (hopefully!) I'm still trying to master the camera so hopefully soon I'll be able to produce good pictures for the one by two kitchen!
After the holiday (end of year holiday) and especially Christmas, a lot of us (including me) would really fancy some fix to our waist length after all those merry foods we've been eating. I was in Spain, and was in love with the Paella, the Tapas, the gelatos, sangria, cocktails, more cocktails and more wines. I know I needed to get back in shape so last week I started on dieting.
I've always been a big fan of the SBD (South Beach Diet) simply cos it works for me. Simply put, cut out the unhealthy carbs, eat the healthy ones, and eat more veggies/lean protein.
That's why one of my newly found recipe is the Pan Seared Tuna Steak, inspired by Manchester's The Second Floor restaurant at Harvey Nichols!
The overall impression of my pan-seared tuna steak!
It's fairly easy too. These days I tend to use butter instead of my usual oil. However if you're watching your waist, make sure that it's a low-fat butter or lighter than light butter (mine is Flora, lighter than light).
For my dinner, I made it half-done/medium-well, simply because I'm a huge fan of everything that is medium-well. However if you have doubts over the freshness of your fish, do cook it thoroughly.
Alright, I'll stop the talking and get you ready for this low carb/high protein meal!
Makes 1 Serving
Ingredients:
- Tuna steak - around 200 grams (FRESH ones please! I got mine from M&S)
- Japanese Teriyaki Sauce (around 4-5 tablespoons for marinating)
- Low-fat Butter (you may substitute for oil)
- Spring Onions (2)
- Fresh Lettuce (a handful)
- Tomatoes (two medium-sized)
- Lime (half)
How to Prepare:
- Cut lightly, vertical and horizontal, on one side of the tuna steak. Do not cut deeply, this is merely to marinate the tuna steak
- Pour 4-5 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce in a bowl and marinate your tuna steak
- Leave it for 3-5 minutes or until you finish cooking the tomato/lettuce stir-fry
- Chop the spring onions to small pieces
- Chop the lettuces to small pieces
- Cut the tomatoes to eight small pieces
- On a pan, smear butter on the pan and put the spring onions in, sizzle for 1-2 minutes
- Put the lettuce and the tomatoes in
- Sprinkle lightly with the teriyaki sauce
- Stir-fry until the lettuce and the tomatoes are cooked to your liking
- Remove the stir-fry from the pan to a plate
- You might want to clean your pan at this time, I choose not to
- If your pan is very dry, lightly coat it with butter or oil and wait until it sizzles
- Place your tuna steak on the pan
- Sizzle for around 3-5 minutes if you are on a medium heat, or until one side turns opaque (don't wait until it turns opaque to the centre of the steak if you want it to be medium-well)
- Flip and sizzle for another 3 minutes until the other side turns opaque
- You might want to hold the tuna steak while cooking the thin side of the steak, do not overcook!
- Move the steak on top of your stir-fry
- Sprinkle Shichimi (Japanese chilli powder) on top of the tuna
- Garnish with lime
- Serve!
This is what you want to achieve if you're doing medium-well
Leave the one by two kitchen some comments or send me messages! Greatly appreciated!
LOVE. the one by two kitchen.
