Seared Albacore with Roasted Veggies and Pear Salad

I don’t cook with fish very much, partly because I don’t find most fishes that exciting, I’m not sure what to do with them, and the best ones are pretty expensive (and I worry about ruining an expensive cut). However! We are trying to reduce our unhealthy meats a little and increase our fish (read omega-3 oils). So, tasked with picking up dinner from whole foods, I came home with: an albacore steak, asparagus (later discarded and replaced with cauliflower and fingerling potatoes), mixed greens, a ripe pear, feta cheese, and a couple of bulbs of spring garlic.

Menu

– Green salad with pear and feta
– Seared albacore with soy-ginger sauce over rice
– Roasted cauliflower and potatoes with garlic and shallots

Directions

I first mixed some soy and vinegar in a bowl, diluted with a little water, and added several slices of crushed ginger. I added the albacore and put it aside to marinate while I did everything else (would be about 45 minutes total). I had leftover rice, but if I hadn’t, I would have put it in the rice cooker at this point.
Next I started the oven preheating to bake at 400. Then I sliced the potatoes and cauliflower (enough for two people) into 1cm slices and added slices of a shallot and a couple cloves of garlic. I tossed it all in a bowl with some olive oil, ground pepper, and sea salt. I poured it out flat into a baking dish and put it in the oven. I was expected 25 minutes or so, but the veggies took closer to 45.
Meanwhile, I cut the green part of the stalk off one of the spring garlic bulbs, leaving a couple inches of stalk and the bulb. I then cut the bottom off and made thin vertical slices. I heated some olive oil on medium-high in a small pot and fried the garlic slices for a minute or two until just crispy. I set these aside to top the albacore.
I then sliced the pears and tiny-cubed the feta and laid out the salad plates, keeping the oil and vinegar to dress at the last minute. Then I mixed up some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and lemon juice to taste, adding as much finely-grated ginger as I could stand.
When the veggies were almost done, I took the albacore out of the marinade and patted it dry, then sprinkling each side with a little salt and pepper. I heated olive oil in a stainless skillet to medium-high, then seared the tuna on each side for about 40 seconds.
Finally, I put a dollop of rice in the center of each plate, with the roasted veggies on one side and topped with slices of the albacore. I poured some of the soy mix over the tuna and rice, and topped with some of the crispy garlic.

Verdict

The albacore was dead easy and really good. In the past I’ve overcooked tuna, worried about undercooking it, but this time was perfect. The soy-ginger went perfectly, and the crispy bits of garlic were a nice flavor and texture. The roasted veggies also came out very nicely, with the occasional bits of garlic and shallot rounding out the potato and cauliflower nicely. The salad was fine, though not as good as a pear salad usually is in a nice restaurant. Not sure why. I will totally make this again.