Seared Ahi Tuna
Fast and easy restaurant style seared ahi tuna for easy weeknight poke bowls.
Here is a quick recipe for my seared ahi tuna that will make you feel like you are having a special meal without having to spend a fortune at a restaurant.
We are big fans of sushi at our house, but sushi is so expensive that it has really become maybe a once a year treat. I love to find ways to replicate restaurant meal favorites at home, and this seared ahi tuna has become one of my family’s most requested meals. It’s like a great sashimi or poke bowl type of meal, we serve it with a variety of bowl fillings to make your own combination, and everyone loves it.
I’m lucky that one of my favorite local stores almost always has these nice packages of ahi in the freezer section for a reasonable price, so I grab a couple packs whenever I see them. This takes literally 1 minute to cook.
I didn’t do a recipe card with specific quantities for this one because I really don’t think you need it it. This is so simple to make but feels so fancy.
Here’s what you’ll need:
Fresh / frozen ahi tuna steaks or pieces
soy sauce
sesame oil
white pepper
neutral high temp oil for frying
How to make it:
If you’re tuna is frozen you will obviously want to thaw it first. Then I just drizzle a little soy sauce and sesame oil over the pieces of fish and sprinkle a little white pepper. The quantity doesn’t need to be very specific, just enough to get each piece of fish lightly seasoned. I turn the pieces over once or twice to make sure they are well coated.
This cooks so fast that I don’t even start cooking until all the other parts of meal are totally ready to go.
When you are ready, pour a couple of tablespoons of oil into a very hot pan. I like to use mostly a neutral oil, with a few dashes of toasted sesame oil added for extra flavor. You’ll want to be sure to have your exhaust fan on, as this is going to get smokey.
When the oil is just starting to smoke place the pieces of tuna in and watch your timer. After 30 seconds turn them over and cook another 30 seconds on the other side. Remove from the pan and get the next ones in. The goal is to get them nicely browned on either side but still very rare in the middle. Remember that fish continues to cook a little after it’s removed from heat, so you definitely want plenty of pink still visible in order to make sure you get that finished rare middle. I cook these just a few at a time and set them on a plate to rest.
When all the pieces are finished cooking, I like to slice them thin for serving. But you could serve them whole as well.
Serve it with:
steamed rice
spring mix / salad greens
sliced cucumbers, or a marinated cucumber salad
diced tomatoes
edamame
cubes of tofu, or my crispy salt and pepper tofu.
furikake (Japanese rice seasoning)
a simple ginger-soy dressing (whisk together sesame oil, rice vinegar and/or lemon juice, freshly grated ginger, soy sauce)
Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu
Easy recipe for how to make restaurant quality crispy salt and pepper tofu at home.
My version of a restaurant favorite - crispy salt and pepper tofu.
Scroll to the end for a recipe card.
Crispy salt and pepper tofu is one of my favorite Asian restaurant dishes to order when I can find it. I’m sure someone will jump on and correct me about calling it Asian, but I’m not sure which cuisine it really originated from. I’ve had it at Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese restaurants.
We don’t eat out much these days, so when I’m craving a favorite restaurant dish I have to figure out how to make it myself. I’ve been working on this one for years and have finally gotten it to how my family and I absolutely love - it’s crispy and salty on the outside, and still soft and moist on the inside. It’s messy to fry but otherwise very easy to make.
Read on to find out how I make this restaurant favorite dish at home, and scroll to the end of you want a printable recipe card.
What you need to make Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu:
The recipe below has approximate quantities for making 1 package of tofu, but I usually double or even triple this because we devour it.
Extra firm tofu
Corn starch
Kosher salt (or a somewhat coarse salt of your choice)
Pepper - we like either white pepper or szechuan pepper
Alternatively you can replace the separate salt and pepper with this blend which is my favorite.
Oil for frying - I use a coconut-safflower-avocado blend, with a few dashes of toasted sesame oil for extra flavor.
Fresh garlic (optional)
Green onions (optional)
Extra salt & pepper for garnish
Oyster sauce (optional)
How to make it:
The first thing you need to do is get a bit of the water out of your tofu. I like to slice the block of tofu in half lengthwise and layer it between a few dishtowels with some kind of weight on top, ideally for at least an hour.
While the tofu is pressing you can mix your corn starch, salt, and pepper. The quantities I have given you in the recipe card below are approximate. I recommend you season the corn starch and then dip a finger in and taste it. You should taste the salt and pepper. Remember that tofu doesn’t have much flavor on it’s own, so your seasoning needs to do all the flavor heavy lifting here.
Next you want to cut your tofu into bite sized cubes. These can be any size you like.
Then toss the cubes of tofu in the seasoned corn starch mixture.
Now you are ready for frying. Heat your oil in a deep frying pan, about an inch deep. Test it with a drop of water to make sure it’s hot enough - the water should sizzle instantly when you drop it in. When the oil is hot enough start adding the tofu cubes and fry them. Do this in batches so they stay spread out and don’t crowed each other. You want them to get nice and crispy on all sides.
Remove the fried tofu cubes from the pan and sprinkle a little extra salt and pepper over the top.
When all the tofu is fried I like to make the little extra garnish of fried garlic and onion. A tablespoon or two of diced or sliced fresh garlic and green onion in the hot oil and stir them around and fry until they get golden, and immediately strain them out and sprinkle over the tofu.
We like to serve ours with a little Chinese style oyster sauce for dipping. One of my favorite ways the have this is with a seared ahi tuna bowl - I make this easy seared ahi tuna, and serve it with steamed rice, salad greens, edamame, cucumber salad, tomatoes, and the crispy tofu. Delicious.
Crispy Salt and Pepper Tofu
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
I almost always at least double this because we love it so much.
As with all of my recipes - I've given you quantities but they are approximate and really flexible. I don't usually measure when I make this. You can, and should, adjust ingredients to suit your tastes.
I usually use a neutral vegetable oil for frying, but sometimes it's nice to add a drizzle of toasted sesame oil to this for extra flavor.
We love these crispy tofu bites plain, but the garlic and onion topping puts them over the top if you have the extra time. We also like to serve some oyster sauce on the side for dipping.
The tofu tastes great left over. It won't retain the crispness, but the flavor is still delicious.
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe
A super quick and simple weeknight teriyaki sauce recipe.
(recipe card is below, just scroll down)
This a super simple and fast base recipe for an easy homemade teriyaki sauce that you can use on all kinds of easy weeknight dinners.
I lived in Seattle for 25 years, and my kids were born and grew up there. And it turns out that Seattle is the birthplace of American style teriyaki! Who knew?!? We think of teriyaki as Japanese food, but the version we know of it is actually an American invention, created by Japanese immigrants in Seattle and evolved over the years to suit American tastes.
In Seattle we were surrounded by teriyaki restaurants, it was actually the type of fast food restaurant that there were the most of. We got accustomed to eating a lot of teriyaki, it was the easiest default weeknight thing to pick up after busy days when we didn’t feel like cooking. But when we left Seattle we were a little surprised to realize that not every town had a teriyaki restaurant on every corner! So now it’s become one of my go-to easy weeknight dinners to cook for the family. It’s really just as simple as slapping some teriyaki sauce on pieces of chicken or slices of tofu, and sticking it in a hot oven for 15 - 30 minutes, just long enough to cook some rice and maybe microwave a bag of frozen broccoli.
It really had never occurred to me to make my own teriyaki sauce until one day I had promised teriyaki chicken to a kid for dinner, and realized I didn’t have any teriyaki sauce in my pantry. So I looked up some recipes for how to make it and it turns out that it’s very simple and fast. Seriously this can come together in like five minutes. If you do any amount of Asian cooking you likely already have all the ingredients you need. I do still buy bottled sauce occasionally because it is very nice to have around (this brand is my all time favorite), but more often these days I just whip up my own because it’s so fast and easy.
What you need for this easy homemade teriyaki sauce recipe:
The recipe card is below.
pineapple juice
soy sauce
brown sugar
honey
ginger (ground or fresh)
garlic (ground or fresh)
sesame oil (optional)
corn starch
sesame seeds (optional)
hoisin sauce (optional)
The recipe card is below with the specific measurements, but really they are all approximate and very flexible. My favorite combination of flavors is meant to imitate a combination of two of the flavors of that bottled sauce brand that I love (the island version with pineapple juice and sesame, and the hoisin garlic version)
Once you have everything together, you basically just chuck it all in a saucepan and whisk a bit as it heats up. Once the mixture gets up to a simmering temperature the corn starch will thicken up and then you’re done. It takes really like five minutes. Unlike flour, when you thicken a sauce with corn starch it’s done as soon as it starts to thicken, so it’s a very fast method.
Once you realize how easy it is to make your own teriyaki sauce you might never buy it from a store again.
This is not a traditional Japanese recipe. More traditional Japanese teriyaki sauces are not thickened or flavored as much as this, they really are much more of a simple light marinade. This version is adapted to our American tastes and is meant to be closer to what you’ll find in a neighborhood street corner teriyaki joint in Seattle. We like a more sweet and thick sauce to coat our teriyaki chicken.
A lot of the ingredients are listed as optional, because the great thing about this recipe is that it's really flexible. I’ve given you the basic way that I do it most of the time, and you can customize yours from there. So you can add more or less sweetness with the honey and sugar, more or less garlic or ginger, swap out the juice, leave out the sesame, etc. There’s no wrong way as long as you like how it tastes.
A few other notes about this recipe:
Most recipes have water instead of juice, and more sugar added. But I like the extra splash of flavor from the pineapple juice, and that it adds sweetness without as much processed sugar. But if you don't like pineapple you can just swap that out for water, and then you'll probably want to add a bit more sugar or honey. You could also use all brown sugar or all honey instead of a mix of both. I like the depth of flavor that the two different sweeteners add, but it’s not mandatory.
The corn start is for thickening, so feel free to adjust that amount if you like your sauce more or less thick. If you’ve not cooked with corn starch much, you need to know that it does need to be dissolved in cold liquid before adding to a hot sauce, otherwise you will get lumps. So if you decide you want your sauce thicker after it's simmering you will need to make a slurry with a couple tablespoons of liquid (water, juice, soy sauce, etc.) and then pour that into the simmering sauce while whisking to avoid lumps.
The optional hoisin adds a bit of extra depth of flavor and is intended to imitate the flavor in my personal favorite bottled sauce, but again, optional. You could try adding a little Chinese oyster sauce instead, I love that flavor too, and it’s especially great if you want to make a teriyaki salmon or other fish.
The sesame seeds don't add much flavor but they give a nice bit of texture. Feel free to leave them out if you don’t have them.
If you use fresh ginger you will need to let this simmer long enough to cook and break that down a bit, otherwise the enzymes in the fresh ginger will affect the texture of your meat.
Easy Pineapple Teriyaki Sauce
Ingredients
Instructions
Notes
The great thing about this recipe is that it's really flexible, so you can add more or less sweetness with the honey and sugar, more or less garlic or ginger, swap out the juice, etc.
- The corn start is for thickening, so feel free to adjust that amount if you like your sauce more or less thick. It does need to be dissolved in cold liquid before adding to a hot sauce though, so if you decide you want your sauce thicker after it's simmering you will need to make a slurry with some water (or juice, soy sauce, etc.) and then pour that into the simmering sauce while whisking to avoid lumps
- The optional hoisin adds a bit of extra depth of flavor and is intended to imitate the flavor in my personal favorite bottled sauce.
- If you don't like pineapple you can just swap that out for water, and then you'll probably want to add a bit more sugar or honey.
- The sesame seeds don't add much flavor but they give a nice bit of texture. Feel free to leave them out.
- If you use fresh ginger you will need to let this simmer long enough to cook and break that down a bit, otherwise the enzymes in the fresh ginger will affect the texture of your meat.