Mother's Day Tuna Steaks

So for Mother's Day this year, Caitlin and I thought it'd be a good idea to have our Mom's over for dinner, especially since we've started getting the house set up, we finally got all of our place settings from the wedding, and frankly, because even though they live 5 miles apart, our parents hadn't seen each other since the wedding in September. . .
Unsure of what to serve, I decided to make a little recipe that I thought up after a dinner at Copper Canyon Grill:

Ginger Lime Tuna Steaks! I first made this as a salad, with chopped apple wood smoked bacon bits thrown in, but I thought that my dad would probably have a heart attack if he at any applewood smoked bacon bits, and well, it would probably work better with 6 people instead of 2 to have one big communal salad on the side for people to take what they want. Here's the recipe for 2 steaks, so multiply out according to how many you're going to serve:

2 Tuna Steaks (as fresh as possible!)

Marinade:

3 Tbsp Ginger Paste or Diced Ginger
3 Tbsp Cilantro Paste or Diced Cilantro
1/4 C Olive or Avocado Oil (the first time I made this I used Lemon infused Avocado Oil)
1/4 C Lime Juice
1/4 C Soy Sauce
1/4 C Diced Scallions
1/4 C Diced Red Onions
Couple pinches each of Ground Black Pepper and Salt


Okay, so chop all this up and dump in a bowl and stir it up real good. If you want to be fancy and have to clean it afterwards you can use a wand blender or a food processor to chop everything into submission. It should yield a lumpy sauce/paste. Marinade the Tuna steaks in this for at least an hour (I'd recommend overnight if you want the most flavor), I usually just put the steaks in a ziploc bag or some tupperware with the marinade.

Salad:
(This is what I added, feel free to substitute or add in whatever you want with this!)
Baby Spinach
Crumbled Goat Cheese
Chopped Applewood Smoked Bacon (I used 2 slices per salad)
Shredded Carrots
Grape Tomatoes
Diced Avocadoes

Okay, to start off, pre-heat the grill to medium-high (or turn on the broiler in your oven).  While that's heating up, assemble your salad in bowls: A nice bed of spinach topped by everything else, then put in the fridge to keep cool.  Now that the grill/broiler is heated up, take the Tuna out of your marinade pouch, and place them on the grill or broiler pan.  Grill for 3 or 4 minutes and then flip (use tongs and grab the sides so you don't break the steak apart) and grill for another 3 or 4 minutes (I like to also put a dallop of marinade on top at this point so it can coat the Tuna a 2nd time).  Keep the remaining marinade.  If you're worried about the "doneness" of the steaks, cut one in half and see how it looks in there.  Don't worry, the tuna's going to get sliced before it goes on the salad, so you won't ruin any "presentation value".  I usually like the tuna to be about 1/3 cooked on the top and bottom with a third in the middle pink, but cook to your taste, if you know you don't like Tuna that way, then by all means, cook it through!

Once you're done on the grill, slice the Tuna and fan out on top of the salad, then drizzle the tuna(s) and salad(s) with the remaining marinade as a salad dressing (Optional add-in: sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds)

Enjoy!


For Dessert:


I made this delicious Dark Chocolate Mousse recipe by Bobby Flay.I used about a half a bag of the Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Baking Chips and mixed it up in our Kitchenaid Mixer (hey, somebody paid $300 for that thing, I'd better get their money's worth out of it!) and topped it with some Whipped cream.