Fishy Friday: Thai Coconut Tuna

At the beginning of the week, I wrote about Meatless Monday.

Given that it's the end of the work week, I couldn't resist naming this post Fishy Friday.

Yesterday, by way of transitioning from the topic of humanely-farmed meats, poultry and eggs, to sustainable seafood, I mentioned two online resources, Ocean Trust and Seafood Watch.

The Ocean Trust label appears on some frozen, packaged fish, in fact the Sockeye salmon which I used in the Spring Vegetable and Salmon Risotto carried that label.

Exploring fish labeling further, I discovered ProFish, an extensive online resource.

If you want details on your "carbon fishprint" this is the site; it lists over 20 watchdog organizations, including the two I mention above.

For today's fishy-Friday dish, I unfroze a fillet of tuna I had in my freezer. It's Whole Foods, Whole Catch yellowfin tuna.

Whole Foods website says, "we build partnerships with farmers and fishermen that are committed to your health, the environment and the integrity of our oceans ..."

I also checked Seafood Watch's website and I found that yellowfin tuna is a good choice, I think, because to tell you the truth it was a bit confusing trolling through the links hoping to find a statement along lines of, "it is safe and environmentally friendly to eat this fish."

In spite of not finding exactly that comment, but noting that yellowfin is a "good choice," I forged ahead, and prepared my piece of tuna.

Thai Coconut Tuna
1) Into a pot pour one can of coconut milk.
2) Add a tablespoon of Thai Red Curry Paste; stir into milk.
3) Add a couple of chopped carrots, a sliced leek, a couple stalks of celery and a chopped baby bok choy, plus a couple cloves of peeled and chopped garlic and the same of a chunk of fresh ginger.
4) Gently simmer ingredients over low heat until the veggies are tender; approximately 15 mins.
5) If you have it, add a splash of Thai fish sauce; taste-test, and add salt if you feel it needs it. Turn heat to low.

6) Cut a fillet of Tuna into small cubes; toss cubes in sesame oil or a light olive or canola oil, salt and pepper. Either cook the cubes in a skillet by simply searing them, or grill them for a minute in the oven.
Note: It will take barely a minute to cook the tuna, so keep an eye on it, and remove it from the heat as soon as it's done to your liking.
7) Squeeze the juice of a fresh lime into the pot of coconut veggies. Taste-test, does it need more lime, fish sauce, salt?

To Serve: Ladle portions of into a bowl and top with the tuna cubes. Decorate with pieces of sliced cucumber, a couple sprigs of cilantro and a wedge of fresh lime.