Water will turn to steam in the hot pan, effectively steaming your meat rather than searing it. This keeps you from getting the crispy, caramelized exterior you want.
The key to getting a good sear is cooking at high heat for a short length of time. Cooking at too low of temperature won’t give you the crispy texture you want and cooking for too long will risk drying out the inside of the meat.
You can adjust the cooking time somewhat as needed based on the thickness of your steaks. For example, if you have an especially-thick steak (over an inch or so thick), you may want to cook in the area of 2-3 minutes.
Note that it’s not especially important for the inside of the meat to be all the way done. In fact, most restaurants will deliberately leave the inside of tuna steaks very rare — unlike fattier fish like salmon, cooking tuna all the way through tends to dry out the meat. Good-quality tuna is safe to eat seared with the inside rare. If you’re worried about the possibility of disease, use a cooking thermometer. Most cooking resources recommend an internal temperature of about 125 degrees F (51 degrees C). [7] X Research source
To make this side, toss the scallions in the pan with the ginger, adding a little more oil to prevent sticking. Cook until clear and soft. Add the soy sauce, rice wine, and remaining lemon juice. Cook for one minute. Season with salt and pepper and serve over the steaks. [8] X Research source
Marinades almost always contain at least one fat and one acid. The fat is generally oil, while the acid can be vinegar, citrus juice, wine, or another acidic ingredient. In addition to this, most marinades have a few other ingredients to give the meat added flavor or aroma. These include herbs, spices, sugar, salt, pepper, and more. In the example marinade recipe above, the orange and lemon juices are the acidic ingredients, the olive oil is the fat, and everything else is for flavor.
You can double-bag your marinade if you’re worried about spills.
Since the marinade contains the juice of the uncooked meat, for sanitation reasons, make sure you never add marinade to the top side of the meat right before serving it. You want the marinade you add to touch the hot pan so any germs in it can be killed. If you do add marinade to the top side of the tuna, flip it and cook briefly before serving.
See our grilling article for lots of specific instructions to get your meat just right.
After you use a paper towel to remove the water from the steaks, paint both sides of each steak with a thin layer of cooking oil. Toss your oil-coated steaks in a bowl with your favorite seasonings, herbs and spices. They will stick to the oil and form a crisp exterior when you sear the meat. Good choices include minced garlic, minced parsley, ginger, paprika, rosemary, thyme, cayenne pepper, onion powder, and much more — it’s up to you. Finish by seasoning with salt and pepper. Sear as normal.
See our soy dressing recipe for a simple sauce that goes well with most seared tuna dishes.
Combine equal parts panko bread crumbs and black sesame seeds in a bowl. Roll the steaks in the breading mixture one by one until they are well-coated. If they aren’t picking up the breading on their own, try coating them lightly with oil first. Pan-sear, using extra oil to get a crisp, fried effect on the breading.
