This is my entry for this month’s Royal Foodie Joust from Jenn, the Leftover Queen.

Kittie won last month (congratulations Kittie) and her choices for this month’s joust were:
*Whole Grain
*Ginger
*Citrus

I made a crystallized ginger and lemon rind wheat bread with bulgar (whole wheat), and a hot and sour soup with ginger, lemon juice, garnished with popcorn (another whole grain). I formed the bread into a bowl and used it to hold the soup.

Soup soup soup!

MMMmmmmmm, Tuna. So, the whole seared tuna thing is about as cliche as you can get these days. Even Nebraska steak houses have a seared tuna appetizer, and there’s not much originality you can present with the fish these days.

On the other hand, why is that different from a steak bearnaise or a shellfish bisque? It’s relatively new, but it is somewhat of a fusion classic in modern cuisine. It could be worse — it could be fried mozerella sticks or something.

My favorite restaurant in South Beach Miami is Nemo’s (which opened long before Pixar). One of their signature dishes is a softball-sized chunk of tuna, rolled in nori seaweed, seared, and presented with a sesame seared rice-ball. It’s too good for words.

Today, one of my fish suppliers had AAA-grade sashimi yellowfin tuna on sale, ruby-red and glistening, and the muscle grains were tight and compact. So, I did my part to riff off of the Nemo’s.

I made a honey-lime-soy glaze, and served the tuna over a glaze-wasabi stir fry of vegetables and pad thai noodles.

toooooooona