This is so simple that it hardly demands a recipe, but it is so tasty I feel compelled to share. I bought a big wodge of tuna to make my recent Tuna Tartare with Blood Orange & Radicchio and I had some leftover which I needed to use. It was a particularly excellent piece of sushi grade tuna and whatever I did with it would be good. I thought about just frying it, but I wanted more, and so my mind wandered back to some almond crusted tuna that I had years back in a restaurant in Sicily, and I wondered how a covering of sesame seeds would work instead. I love their flavour and their nutty texture.
I love fish fingers, which is a funny thing as I remember distinctly deciding that I hated them and would never eat them again when I was about 3 or 4 in my aunts house. That would start a childhood of freakish food habits. There were foods that I loved (potato, beans, eggs, rhubarb, apples, gooseberries, CRISPS!) and everything else was pretty much rejected. I would starve myself and spent hours at my grandmothers table watching my cousins and siblings playing outside. I was not allowed to move until I ate my meal, which I never would. I am stubborn, and it has served me well.
I have come back around to the fish finger now, especially made at home with hake or halibut or the posher ones from the supermarket on rare occasion. I have even embraced the fish finger sandwich slathered with peas and mint and a slick of mayo. I think this must be an English thing as I never came across it until I moved here (Irish readers: am I wrong?!). I figured tuna in a sesame jacket, crisp outside and rare with, might raise my fish finger game a little. It did.
I served mine with a miso mayo, but if you want peas and mint go ahead, and blitz them a little to make a dip. Chilli mayo works well too. Recipes for both mayo recipes are included below.
Other Eat Like a Girl recipes for tuna lovers
Almond Crusted Tuna with Chilli Roast Pumpkin, Wilted Lettuce, Tomato & Curry Leaves
Cooking in Sabah: Two Healthy Sea Gypsy Recipes (Fish Soup & a Fish Salad)
Other tuna recipes you might like to try
Tuna Tataki from Just One Cookbook
Tuna toasties for a busy Friday night from Cooksister
Gorgeous recent blog posts from elsewhere
Fish Cakes and Salad. The Sea, The Sea – from The Little Library Cafe, a gorgeous blog penned by Kate sharing recipes inspired by literature.
PEA SOUP WITH PANCETTA AND MINT, JUST LIKE ME… – from the lovely Jul’s Kitchen, a gorgeous Tuscan cooking blog.
Ingredients
- 300g tuna, cut into fish finger size widths (about an inch wide and 3 inches long)
- 1 egg
- 100g flour (plain flour or rice flour or similar if you are gluten free)
- 100g sesame seeds
- sea salt and black pepper
- light oil for frying like groundnut or rapeseed - enough to fill the pan you are going to fry in to an inch deep
- 2 tbsp mayo, 1tbsp miso of your choice, 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp mayo
- 2 tbsp gojuchang (Korean pepper paste)
- a squeeze of fresh lime juice
- fresh coriander leaves and edible flowers (I used wild garlic flowers)
Instructions