A Japanese inspired complete dinner recipe for sesame crusted, pan-seared ahi tuna, white and wild rice, spicy soy roasted cucumbers and coffee jelly for dessert from start to finish. This recipe includes ingredients and a shopping list to make life simple.
If you follow along with our video and instructions you can prepare this full meal in less than 60 minutes. That means you can have this date night dinner any night of the week you want.
Spicy Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna Complete Dinner Recipe
| Recipe Details | |
|---|---|
| Courses | |
| Appetizer | Spicy, garlicky edamame |
| Entrée | Sesame crusted, pan-seared ahi tuna stakes w/ chili mayo |
| Side dishes | White and wild rice, and spicy soy roasted cucumbers |
| Dessert | Coffee jelly |
| Wine pairing | Pinot noir |
| Info | |
| Servings | 2 |
| Total Time | 75 minutes |
| Cost* | $35 |
| Cuisine | Japanese |
Complete NY Steak Dinner Recipe Video
You can watch the video of this dinner being made. If you make this yourself leave a comment and let us know how it went. You can also send us pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Home Dinner Date Details
Appetizer: Spicy, Garlicky Edamame
If you want to have a hot date night, start with some hot, spicy food**. This spicy, garlic, edamame dish is a fun and tasty way to start off the evening.
Serve the spicy edamame along with an empty plate for collecting the shells (or pods). You eat edamame pods by biting them open with your teeth and sucking out the beans inside. Then you discard the shells on the empty plate.
Spicy Edamame Ingredients
- 10 oz steamable bag of edamame in pods
- 4 cloves of minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon chilli paste
- 1 tablespoon mayonaise
- pinch of salt
Entrée: Sesame Crusted, Pan-Seared Ahi Tuna with Chili Mayo, White and Wild Rice and Soy Roasted Cucumbers
Our main dish tonight is a sesame crusted, pan-seared ahi tuna. The toasted sesame seeds on the outside give this a wonderful nutty flavor. The inside stays raw like sushi but it looks like a perfectly cooked medium rare steak. Ahi tuna is usually sold frozen and what we normally get but if you want fresh, it's usually sold as yellow-fin tuna. Ahi tuna is just the Hawaiian way to say yellow-fin tuna apparently. Some packages are marked as "sushi grade" but from the little bit of research I did it doesn't seem like that's anything more than a marketing term. Go with the tuna steaks that work for you. I usually like the smaller ones as 4 ro 5 ounces is a good sized portion per person.
We went with a chili mayo sauce this time but you could also go with wasabi aoli instead.
To continue the black and white theme used in the sesame seeds we also went with a mix of white and black, wild rice. Our vegatable side dish is spicy, soy roasted cucumbers. These were very good and the first time we've had cooked cucumbers.
Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna with Chili Aoli Ingredients
- 2 Ahi Tuna Steaks
- 1/8 cup black sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup white sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons mayonaise
- 1 teaspoon sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon chile paste (or to taste)
- juice of 1/2 a lime
Soy Roasted Cucumbers Ingredients
- 1 lb seedless (English) cucumbers
- 2 cloves of garlic minced
- 1 fresh red chile finely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1 leaf basil chopped
- 3 tablespoons canola oil (peanut or other high heat oil)
Black and White Rice Ingredients
- 1/4 cup white rice
- 1/4 cup wild rice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Dessert: Coffee Jelly
According to Wikipedia, coffee jelly used to be popular in the US and Britain but now Japan seems to be the hot spot of the coffee jelly scene. In Japan they use agar but we'll use gellatin instead as that's easier to find. Of course we're going to top it with homemade whipped cream too!
This was very refreshing and we're glad we made it. The caffiene gives you a little extra energy to keep the date going too.
Strawberry Shortcake Ingredients
- 2 cups black coffee
- 2 packets unflavored gellatin (1.5 tablespoons or 16 grams)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 4 tablespoons sugar (for coffee jelly)
- 3 ounces heavy whipping cream
- 2 tablespoons sugar (for cream)
Wine Selection
Spicy, fatty, red fish like tuna go well with a dry red wine like a pinot noir which is what we went with.
I have to admit that pinot noir is usually not my first choice of varietals if I'm just drinking wine but it paired very well with this meal. My local wine store had some Mark West Pinot Noir on sale for about $10. The price and decent ratings is why we chose it.
Directions
Timings are included as a guide to keep you on track, make adjustments as necessary.
The Night Before Your Date
A few things will need to be done the night before your date. It should only take about 10 minutes or so.
- Start brewing 2 cups of coffee using whatever brewing method and beans you like.
- Place the 1/4 cup of wild rice in a bowl, add enough cold water to the bowl to cover the rice, the cover the bowl and place it in the fridge. Soaking the wild rice overnight will cut down on the cooking time tomorrow.
- Take the tuna out of the freezer to defrost in the refrigerator if you're using frozen tuna steaks.
- Mix 2 packets of unflavored gelatin in a bowl with 3 tablespoons of water and mix to hydrate.
- After the coffee has brewed, add the 4 tablespoons of sugar to the bowl of gelatin, then add the hot coffee and mix until all the gelatin is dissolved.
- Pour the mix into your molds, let it cool a little, then cover and refrigerate until tomorrow night.
15 Minutes Before Your Date Arrives
Get started in the kitchen about 15 minutes before you expect your date to arrive.
- (00:00) Take the tuna out of the fridge so it starts to get up to room temperature.
- (00:00) Boil 3/4 cups of water, drain the black rice and add it to the boiling water. Cover and reduce heat to simmer for 15 minutes.
- (00:01) Mix the mayonaise, sesame oil, chili paste and juice of 1/2 a lime together for the tuna sauce. Cover and refrigerate until plating.
- (00:03) start measuring and prepping the other ingredients we'll need for the appetizer and sides. Dice the chili pepper, mince the garlic, cut the cucumbers into little spears, measure the sesame seeds, etc.
- (00:08) Steam the edamame in the microwave according to the bag instructions. Start sauteeing the garlic in sesame oil until lightly browned. Then mix the sauteed garlic, mayonaise, chili paste, and soy sauce in a bowl. Mix in the edamame when done.
- (00:13) Start boiling a 1/2 cup of water in the microwave.
- (00:15) Add the boiling water, along with the 1/4 cup of white rice to the wild rice, bring it back up to a boil, cover and reduce heat and simmer for another 15 minutes.
When Your Date Arrives
We'll wait to cook the rest of the food so it's hot for our guest. If they're running late the rice is easy to heat back up.
- (00:17) After welcoming your date, serve them the spicy edamame and some wine.
- (00:20) Start sauteeing cucumbers in canola oil.
- (00:28) After cucumbers started to brown a bit, add the chili pepper and garlic and stir.
- (00:29) Add the soy sauce, the rice vinegar to the cucumbers and keep an eye on it while you work on them tuna.
- (00:30) Heat up a pan over medium high heat. Press each side of the tuna steaks into the sesame seeds to coat. Then add oil to the pan and sear the tuna to your liking. 30 to 60 seconds is what most people do. We did 60 seconds on each side and 45 seconds on each edge. When done remove from pan and let rest.
- (00:36) finish the cucumbers with by adding the sesame oil and lastly the basil. Remove from heat and start plating the rice, cucumbers and chili mayo.
- Slice the tuna into 1/2" thick slices and add to the plate and serve.
After the Main Course
- Remove the coffee jelly from the fridge. If you need to unmold them it helps to dip bottom and sides of the molds in hot tap water for a few seconds to help them release.
- Whip up some whipped cream with sugar to the thickness you like, top the cofee jelly with the whipped cream and serve.
Shopping List
This is a summary of all the ingredients used in this Ahi Tuna dinner date recipe to make it easier to shop.
- 2 Ahi Tuna Steaks (about 4 ounces each)
- 1 basil leaf
- 1/8 cup black sesame seeds
- 1/4 cup sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons chili paste
- 1 pound seedless cucumbers
- 10 oz steam in bag edamame pods
- 1 red chili pepper
- 6 cloves garlic
- 2 packets unflavored gelatin
- 3 ounces heavy whipping cream
- coffee
- 1 lime
- 3 tablespoons mayonaise
- 3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
- 1 teaspoon rice vinegar
- 1/4 teaspoon + pinch of salt
- 2-1/2 teaspoons sesame oil
- 3.5 teaspoons soy sauce
- 6 tablespoons sugar
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1/4 cup white rice
- 1/4 cup black wild rice
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