Midweek Meal Grade? B-
This didn’t end up in the ‘well that didn’t work’ bucket with a D- grade because the seared ahi, while slightly overcooked, was really good as were the carrots. But the celery root mash, yeah, that needs to go.
It was the wrong flavor profile and texture. We are food texture people…if the texture is wrong, we have trouble eating it.
Yeah. I blame you for that one, Mom. Anyways, the celery mash was off both taste and texture wise — a double no no. We tried to shake things up a bit with the celery root rather than plain old mashed potatoes, but, moral of the story is: always go with mashed potatoes. Always. No exceptions. Even if you’re climbing a mountain and you have a choice between a rope and a bowl of mashed potatoes, go for the mashed potatoes. They’ll serve you well because they’re mashed potatoes.
Let’s go back in time a few hours. I picked Rei up from school and we dropped by the local market (Key Market) to pick up provisions for dinner and for baking (more on that in a separate post).
We started in the cheese (I fuckin love cheese) section to stock up just in case we have guests at the last minute and then went to the meat section. There were some beautiful and inexpensive ahi tuna steaks that I thought would be fun to try.
We wandered by the champagne section where I picked up two bottles of Sharffenberger bubbly, once again, just in case someone stopped by unexpectedly and was parched. Then I added some Fever Tree tonic to the basket hoping that the cheese at the bottom was getting crushed.
We picked up some butter, sugar, vanilla, and eggs for baking and then swung by the produce section to get some lemons for a citrus inspired sauce for the tuna (we didn’t go that direction but you can always use another lemon or three). Now we have like six lemons because we keep forgetting if we have any or not, and end up picking some up at the store just in case. It’s a real problem, people!
We considered mashed potatoes for under the fish but Rei suggested we do a celery root puree. Great idea…not so great in execution. I was going off that one time we did a celery root and something else puree that was really good. Was it potato? Leek? Both? I don’t remember :(
Rei had homework to do so after they took a nap and we got into the kitchen, I got started on dinner. Zeke was at work so it was just us two which we generally enjoy.
I found a recipe online for celery mash and peeled the damn thing before chopping it into cubes and putting in water to come to a boil. Celery roots are pretty dirty and aren’t that fun to peel.
Once that was cleaned up, I prepped the items for the fish. I am really digging ginger these days and love that this recipe called for grated ginger and sliced garlic.
Before I forget, here’s the link for the seared ahi tuna tataki recipe. As usual, we didn’t follow it 100% because we didn’t have all of the ingredients but it worked anyway.
I measured out the soy sauce and the sesame seeds and squeezed half a lemon. I set all of this aside because the celery root was going to take 45 minutes and the fish needed 10. While I was in the kitchen for all of this time, I wasn’t really paying attention because I had homework. Fun times.
We had carrots in the fridge so I cut off the ends of three of them, cut them into thirds, and then cut into sticks. I tossed them with some olive oil, kosher salt, chopped garlic, and some freshly chopped ginger to tie into the fish dish. I baked in a 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes, moving them around once or twice during that time. Spoiler alert: these were really good. No shit, Sherlock. Oven roasted carrots are a no brainer — always a good go-to recipe :D
I finished the (gross) celery mash and put into the oven with the carrots as we cooked the tuna. First step was to smoosh (technical culinary term) the sesame seeds into the fish (on all sides). Kinda like steak au poivre except with tuna instead of steak and sesame seeds instead of pepper and flavor instead of grossness.
Then I heated some olive oil (not all of what the recipe called for since I ran out of it) and some sesame oil.
Once hot, Rei added the sliced garlic to cook for less than a minute. The goal was to NOT burn the garlic. We succeeded with this step. No thanks to you! The garlic was so close to burning when you insisted on taking the picture! True. But then you wouldn’t use a slotted spoon and insisted on using a fork which took even longer. If the garlic had burned, it would have been your fault.~Terri
Rei took out the garlic and set it aside and then put the tuna steaks into the seasoned oil. We were supposed to cook for about 30 seconds each side but we got nervous and cooked a little longer. Result: slightly overcooked but still tasty. You had less issues with the texture than I did ; for me, it was way overcooked, but probably for the best — we don’t know how high quality that tuna was, and eating it almost raw could have ended badly.
I whisked together the soy sauce, grated ginger, lemon juice, and some of the uncooked sliced ginger. Who knew that this combination could be so simple and so tasty. I may be putting it on more things in the coming weeks. Big thumbs up on the flavor combo!
It sure looks pretty but that mash? Gross. And, yes, champagne goes with everything.
This pic of Rei is a tribute to my late grandmother AKA Grams. We have so many pictures of Grams taking bites of everything from cake to venison (hunted by my grandfather). I am sure Rei will have a comment on this random family fact/observation. And yes, I tried to find a picture to add here.
Rei? Care to chime in with your end of week snarkiness?
Sure. But first of all, what’s with the family facts? I had to learn about a possible uncle I’ve never heard about through a conversation you had with Mila at dinner on Tuesday, for goodness’ sake! That was not my story to tell, Rei.~Terri
Anyways, where are these pictures? I’d like to see some pictures of my great grandmother eating things, if you please. Rei, last night I looked for the pictures but couldn’t find them. I looked again today so here you go.~Terri
Back to the dinner: I’d give this either a B- or a C+. Still a passing grade, but just barely. For me, the only redeeming qualities were the flavor of the sauce and the carrots in general. I didn’t much care for the texture of the fish or mash, or the flavor of the mash.
Still, it wasn’t disgusting (as evidenced by the fact that we ate it and didn’t give it to the chickens/garbage disposal, although a decent amount of my mash did end up in the green casket aka compost bin), and we are still alive to tell the tale.
Bottom line:………..uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyyeaahhhhhh I don’t know where I was going with this. It was gonna be really good, but I lost it. Oh well.
Until next time, or until I think of what I was going to say, ciao, and have a mongthrongufubulictionst day!
Rei and Terri :P
