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Tuna au Poivre With Red Wine Sauce
![Tuna au Poivre With Red Wine Sauce](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2013/11/06/dining/06KITCH1/06KITCH1-articleLarge-v2.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 40 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1½pounds fresh tuna, cut into 6 steaks about 1-inch thick
- Salt
- 2garlic cloves, smashed to a paste
- ½teaspoon coriander seeds, lightly toasted and ground
- ½teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly toasted and ground
- 2teaspoons coarsely crushed black peppercorns
- 2tablespoons olive oil
- 1tablespoon butter
- 2shallots, finely diced
- ½cup red wine
- 2½cups chicken broth
Preparation
- Step 1
Season tuna steaks with salt. Sprinkle with garlic, coriander, fennel and black pepper. Drizzle with olive oil. Rub to coat evenly with spices on both sides. Let marinate at room temperature for 15 minutes (or refrigerate for up to 4 hours and bring to room temperature before cooking).
- Step 2
Make the red wine sauce: Melt butter over medium-high heat and add shallots. Cook, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add wine and simmer until reduced by half. Add chicken broth and reduce until 1 cup sauce remains, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, set aside and keep warm.
- Step 3
Set a wide cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat (or use 2 smaller pans). When hot, lay in steaks and sear for 2 minutes, until nicely browned. Flip and cook 1 minute more for rare, 2 minutes for medium rare. Arrange tuna on a platter or individual plates. Spoon wine sauce over each steak.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Not sure I'll ever understand how recipe writers reduce sauces and caramelize onions so quickly. Anyway, this is a wonderful recipe. Highly recommend!
I would cut the wine sauce ingredients in half next time. Four ounces of sauce was plenty. More for the table! Otherwise, excellent.
I used a dry Pinot Noir (white) instead of the red (it was what I had on hand at the time) and it was fantastic!
White Pinot Noir?
Delicious - used veggie broth instead of chicken. Took 20 min to reduce
We had one large steak for the two of us and adjusted the quantities of the ingredients accordingly.
We served mashed potatoes and wilted spinach as sides and we agreed it was a delicious meal.
I used a cast iron grill skillet and did cook the tuna to medium rare instead of rare.
We will never use any other tuna recipe.
Compared this with other red wine reduction sauces because it takes much much longer than 10 minutes to reduce 3 cups of liquid to one cup. Use more (double) the shallots and 1/2 cup broth instead of 2 1/2 cups. Add a rosemary sprig for additional flavor if needed.
They can't. End of story. Real life and the recipe, rarely go together.
I really enjoyed this, although I agree that there's too much sauce. Plus, at 1 cup its a little watery-- next time I'll reduce it down to a syrupy consistency that will coat the tuna. A couple notes about searing the tuna: 1. Put the cast-iron skillet in the oven at 450-500 to heat it evenly. With only 3 minutes to cook a rare steak, you can't afford cool spots in the pan. 2. The directions just say to lay the tuna in the cast-iron. Tuna has no fat, so I added 2-3 tsp of peanut oil.
To make step one easier: Add the toasted coriander and fennel seeds to a mortar, grind with a pestle. Add the coarsely ground pepper. Press the garlic through a press into the mix. Add the olive oil and mix with the pestle. Paint the tuna with the mixture with a pastry brush.
Great recipe and made with swordfish because that is what I had in my coastal California town. It was great and can't wait to try with tuna. Like others, I would add more time for the sauce reduction. Following my Dad's advice, I added 1 T. corn starch and about 2T water to a small Tupperware container, shook vigorously and poured into the sauce. It thickened nicely and gave it a silky texture. To remove any clumps, I put through a strainer and it was velvety smooth yumminess. Will make again!
Took me over an hour to prepare. Very tasty - substituted twice as much fresh diced celery for fennel and white onion for shallot. Heated a little vegetable oil in cast iron pan before adding tuna steaks. Took at least 30 min. to reduce sauce. Next time, I’d finely chop shallots instead of thinly slice them and turn up the heat from medium right away to reduce more quickly.
"Not sure I'll ever understand how recipe writers reduce sauces and caramelize onions so quickly." Doug, Blue Star gas stove (almost thermonuclear heat), constant stirring else it burns as it boils. We put one in my old house kitchen remodel, our new house kitchen is electric, reducing takes forever.
A great recipe. However, it took me 45 minutes to reduce the sauce and I only added 2 cups instead of the recommended 2.5 of stock. Next time I’ll try adding half a cup of stock. Makes great leftovers in a salad the following day. Served this with mashed potatoes and steamed spinach.
This was amazing! Reading through the reviews, I made the following changes: 1) Reduced the chicken broth to one cup. It was still a bit thin so added 2 teaspoons of cornstarch to thicken at the end, delicious sauce 2) Added Everything Bagel spice along with ground coriander with the garlic (omitted fennel as my husband does not care for the flavor) I had just the right amount of pinot noir left from the weekend. The tuna steaks were delicious. We will make this again. And again.
This recipe was delicious! I used more sauce, and larger tuna portions ( 1 1/2 lb for 6 seemed very light!). I added pink and black peppercorns, sesame seeds and poppy seeds to approximate an “everything” spice. Yum!
Tasted great! Replaced the fennel with tarragon.
No fennel seed Use coriander powder Rosemary sprig in wine reduction
For all the recipes that call for reducing a large volume of broth, instead use the amount of bouillon for the required stock, but much less water.
Delicious —used white vermouth
This is a huge favorite for my husband and me. I make it often. Great combinations of flavors, and it’s quick! I made the wine sauce once and didn’t feel like we needed it, so I always make it with the spices and quick sautéing. I mix up the coriander, fennel and garlic for two rounds and keep it in the freezer. Sooooooo good!
recipie was simple and reasonable for weeknight. the seasoning was good. but the sauce was too thin and watery. I'll skip the sauce next time. key is to use quality fish.
Be patient with the reduction of the sauce, wait until it gets thick, you'll love it. It will take closer to 20 minutes than 10 minutes.
Truly exceptional. Used homemade veggie stock as well and was patient on the reduction. Also strained the sauce for fun. Served with mash potatoes and green beans. It was a farmers market meal!
The flavors were good but the sauce disappointing: much too watery. I might suggest reducing further, straining out the shallots, and whisking in additional butter to emulsify the sauce.
Waaaayyy too much broth. Took too long to reduce and never got to where I wanted it.
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