Yellow Fin Tuna "Wellington"

 

Serves: 4 Portions

 

Ingredients:

 

• 4 – 5 ounce portions of Yellow fin Tuna
• 1 pound Wild Mushrooms, any type will do.
• 4 shallots, peeled and minced
• 1 cup White Wine
• 40 large Flat Spinach Leaves
• 2 large Sheets Puff Pastry, found in the frozen section in most specialty stores.
• 4 cups Red Wine
• 1 cup Red Port Wine
• 2 ounces Sweet Butter
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Special Equipment:

 

• Plastic wrap
• Convection Oven

Preparing the Tuna Wellington:

 

• Mushrooms: Quickly rinse the mushrooms and remove any inedible pieces. Then heat a large sauté pan over high heat. Meanwhile, chop the mushrooms into very tiny mince. When the pan is hot, add 2 oz cooking oil and toss in the mushrooms. Sauté the mushrooms until moist if the natural water is evaporated, then add the shallots and white wine. Let the mushrooms cook until the pan is almost dry. Cool and reserve.
• Spinach: Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil, and have an ice bath on stand by. Blanch the spinach for 10 seconds and then shock in the ice bath. On a couple of large trays lay out the spinach on some paper towels to allow to dry.

Building the Wellington’s:

Take a large piece (8x12) of plastic wrap and lay it out on the counter. Carefully start to lay the spinach one piece at a time overlapping just a little. When the spinach rectangle is about 6x8, spread a nice layer of the mushrooms over the spinach to form a 5x7 shape on top of the spinach. Season the tuna with salt and pepper and add to the one end of the spinach. Gently start to roll the tuna with the spinach and mushrooms while using the plastic wrap as a guide. Make a little tight package and let set for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the puff pastry into (4) 4x6 piece’s and (8) 4 inch rounds. Remove the plastic wrap from the tuna rolls.

Place the tuna rolls on the 4x6 pieces of puff pastry and start to roll until the tuna is covered by puff. Then seal all ends or cracks with egg wash. Reserve until needed.

 

Making the Sauce:

In a large pot add the red wine and red port wine. Reduce until about 3 oz’s left, and then finish the sauce with butter, salt and pepper.

 

Cooking the Wellington:

Preheat a convection oven at 425 degree’s. Put the Tuna Wellington’s onto a non-stick baking sheet and generously egg-wash the Tuna Wellington packages.

Cooking time table:

12 minutes – medium rare, 14 minutes - medium, 16 minutes – medium well, 18 minutes + - well done.

 

Yellowfin tuna special

 

• 1 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for rubbing tuna
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 1/2 pounds tuna loin
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 pound snow peas, cut into pieces
• 6 medium radishes, trimmed and sliced
• 1 cup grape tomatoes
• 7 leaves basil, torn
• 1/2 bunch parsley, cleaned and leaves roughly chopped
• 6 cups mesclun lettuce

Place the oil in a small saucepan. Scrape the vanilla bean and add the scraped seeds, and the pod to the oil. Heat over low heat to infuse the oil with the vanilla, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool slightly.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper. Rub with oil. Place on a hot grill pan and sear on all sides, about 8 minutes. The outside should be seared, but the inside should be rare.

Remove tuna from the heat and slice into thin slices.

Blanch the snow peas in salted, boiling water. Shock in an ice bath. In a large bowl combine snow peas, radishes, tomatoes, chopped parsley and basil and mesclun lettuce.

Toss with some of the vanilla oil. Serve on a platter with the tuna slices shingled. Garnish with fresh herbs and drizzle with a little extra vanilla oil.