Canarian · Starter · From the menu Huerta
Tuna, ponzu, avocado
Atún, ponzu, aguacate
Local tuna cut to order and dressed at the last moment in a ponzu made with island citrus, over avocado. The cleanest thing on the menu and the one with the least room for error.
The ponzu is worth making properly and it is worth making early: the standard ratio across every published version is four parts soy to one of mirin to three or four of citrus, and it wants a full day in the fridge with the kombu and the bonito. One refinement I took from the reading and would not go back on: hold the citrus juice out of the steep and stir it in after straining. A day of contact costs you exactly the lift the dish is there for.
Ingredients
- 600 g sashimi-grade tuna loin, in one piece
- 2 ripe avocados
- For the ponzu: 120 ml light soy sauce
- 30 ml mirin
- 110 ml fresh citrus juice, lemon and lime in equal parts
- 20 ml rice vinegar
- 10 g kombu
- 5 g katsuobushi (bonito flakes)
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 2 spring onions, sliced on a steep angle
- Toasted sesame seeds and a little fresh chilli
Method
- A day ahead, boil the mirin for 30 seconds to a minute to burn off the alcohol, then let it cool.
- Combine the cooled mirin with the soy, the rice vinegar, the kombu and the katsuobushi. Cover and refrigerate 24 hours.
- Strain and discard the solids, then stir the citrus juice in. Adding it now rather than at the start is the difference between a ponzu that smells of citrus and one that only tastes of it.
- Keep the tuna wrapped and very cold, on ice if you have it, until the moment you cut it. Trim off any sinew and the darker bloodline.
- Cut the loin against the grain into slices 7 to 10 mm thick, using one long draw of the knife per slice, heel to tip, never sawing.
- Slice the avocado thinly and lay it down first, seasoned with salt and a squeeze of lemon.
- Lay the tuna over, spoon the ponzu on generously, then a few drops of sesame oil.
- Finish with the spring onion, sesame seeds and chilli and take it straight out.
Serve it with. Nothing warm. It is meant to arrive cold against whatever came off the fire before it.