Instructions
There’s a great, though sad, irony in our sense of seafood. Images blasted throughout the Summer of families reclining by the sea, gorging themselves on fish and prawns, scallops and crab, seem to imply that seafood is a only hot-weather pursuit.
But in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. For reasons relating to the nature of currents and the migratory patterns of fish, winter is actually the very best season for eating seafood. Not only will you find widest range, but the quality is also higher as fish accumulate greater reserves of natural oils to sustain themselves through the colder months, oils that make a fish taste delicious.
The one catch is weather. Winter storms can make deepwater fishing impossible, and there will be times throughout season when the fleet stays safely berthed. But when they do venture out, the rewards are fantastic.
If you combine colder weather with a full moon, you are in for the best tuna of the year. Like many pelagic (coastal, surface-feeding) fish, tuna follows a lunar cycle. During the full moon, its feed stocks congregate around undersea mounts, and so the fish begin their aggressive behaviour, the very characteristic that makes the more likely to strike a bait.
As luck would have it, this is exactly what we’re in for next week – a wintry cold snap and a full moon. Remember to cook your tuna only as far as necessary. Rare is best, but mid-rare is OK. As tuna cooks it constricts and dries out, dropping much of its moisture and healthy flavour-giving oils.
A little bit of a spicy kick is just the thing to transform your tuna into something wonderful. So who cares if it feels summery, consider it a welcome reminder of the beach while you’re rugged up against the cold!
Seared tuna with shichimi and exotic mushrooms/