My Happy Place: Seared Tuna with Italian Herb Sauce and Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

Recipe: Seared Tuna with Italian Herb Sauce and Haricots Verts with Shallot & Lemon

I didn't just cook for 1 tonight! Yay! My friend Sarah is in town for work and is staying with me. So I got to have another guinea pig for my experiment. And Sarah is engaged to Terraun, my other resident guinea pig. So now, being my guinea pig is a family affair. And since I was sharing my adventure, I invited my friend Henry over also. I love cooking for other people, especially when they like the results. Cooking for yourself is lonely sometimes. And after 4 days of Chicken Pot Pie, no matter how good it is...it gets a little monotonous. So I was very excited to be able to share my adventure with my friends. This was another very fancy, stylistic meal. And another one to add to my dinner party portfolio. This one actually looks fancier than the pork chops and twice-baked potatoes meal. It wasn't quite as simple as that meal, but by no means was it stressful to prepare. Now, have you wondered what Haricots Verts are yet? When it popped up randomly, and I saw what the recipe was, I was thinking, "What the heck is this? What odd vegetable has Williams-Sonoma come up with now?". Being the inquisitive person that I am, and being very afraid I wouldn't find these Haricots Verts anywhere in the Mid-Ohio Valley area, I googl'd them. And yeah...they're green beans. :) So apparently the French term for green beans is Haricots Verts. Ha! That sounds so much more fancy than green beans. So from this moment on, I shall call green beans Haricots Verts. Or HV's, which is what Sarah and I ended up calling them by the end of the night. Verts is also an acceptable term.

So for these two recipes to have come up randomly, they complemented each other very well. I started by making the Italian Herb Sauce because it needed to sit for an hour so the flavors could meld. And man did it have a lot of flavors in it to meld. I put an anchovy fillet, a minced garlic clove, Italian parsley leaves, fresh mint leaves, capers, dijon mustard, and red wine vinegar into a food processor and pureed it all until it was smooth. I was somewhat nervous with the anchovy at first. Although I've never had anchovies, it just seems they aren't a very well liked food. While I was shopping for food today, I told Sarah I would be home after I found my anchovies, and she also took pause for a second. I think when people hear the word anchovy, they immediately get grossed out. It's like one of the red-headed stepchildren of the food family. But in the essence of my adventure, I shall try all foods, the loved and unloved alike. And Sarah was happy to commit as well. Turns out, we had nothing to worry about. All of the flavors were pureed together so well there's no chance we would've tasted the anchovy anyway. So while the sauce was in the fridge melding, I started working on the HV's. I boiled the HV's for about 6 minutes, and then put them in ice to stop the cooking so they stayed crisp. I sauteed shallots for a couple of minutes and then added the HV's and continued sautéing them. Then at the end I added lemon zest and sauteed for 30 more seconds. I added chopped parsley, salt, and pepper to season. And this dish was complete. I knew it was good well before the meal was ready to serve because Henry kept sneaking over and stealing pieces of HV's. In fact, I almost had to ban him from the kitchen. I'd never think to put lemon zest on HV's, but it gives it a really fresh taste. Hmm, I wonder what other vegetables would also benefit from lemon zest? Brussels Sprouts, perhaps??? :) To sear the tuna, I just cooked the steaks on high heat for 90 seconds on each side. Then, after asking my guests if they wanted rare, medium rare, or medium tuna steaks, I cooked each side for 60 seconds longer for medium. Actually, I think they were more medium-well, but they were still really good. In fact, this was an awesome meal. It was fancy and healthy and easy to make. And Sarah and Henry both loved it. Yay! In fact, in addition to my usual picture to show how the meal turned out, I have the "5 minutes after the meal was served" pictures of Sarah and Henry's plates. Needless to say, they devoured this meal. A definite sign of a successful experiment. :) So while I didn't have much left over from this meal, seeing my friends enjoy it was a much more fulfilling reward than eating HV's for the next 3 days.

The final masterpiece