Another fresh, summertime, weeknight meal. 🙂 Staying with my theme of light refreshing summertime meals, this is what we made for dinner last night.

I have been pretty bummed out since we got back from Portland, Me. visiting our son because I broke my DSLR camera while we were there. 😦 I had so many more photographs I wanted to take. We still got to take photos with Baby Lady’s Lumix but it’s just not the same. I had lugged almost the entire camera accouterments with me, i.e. the camera, charger, vertical grip, 17 – 85 mm lens; 70 – 200 mm lens; 135 – 400 mm lens; distance flash, etc. About the only thing I didn’t take was the 55 mm macro lens and ring flash that I use for the food photos on the blog. We had talked about going and seeing the whales but when I broke my camera and lost the ability to get good distance photos, I kinda lost interest. I had been bummed out so bad that we actually went out to eat every day since we got back. Heavy sigh! Oh well, I have now made arrangements to ship the camera to NJ for repairs under the extended warranty I had purchased. It will be 3 weeks until I get it back. In the meantime, I’m back to my original DSLR, which thankfully I have. Inasmuch as both were the same camera line the lenses are all interchangeable and I can take photos but the older camera simply doesn’t have the crispness the new one does. Nonetheless, the batteries are all charged and ready to go.

Because I have been pretty bummed out I needed something to give me a little cheer. Bigeye tuna is one of those things that can always cheer me up. First, it’s delicious. Second, it always reminds me of Hawaii, a place I dearly love. So to get me out of the dumps and get used to my old DSLR while the other one is getting repaired, this is what we fixed for dinner. It’s very tropical and a quick and easy meal. The diced coconut in the salsa gives it a nice contrasting texture not to mention another layer of flavor. We hope you give it a try.

Ingredients

• 2 Bigeye Tuna steaks, 8 oz each
• 3 – 4 Tbsp Ancho Chile Rub
• 1 Tommy Atkins Mango, ripe, diced
• 1/2 cup fresh coconut, small dice
• 1/2 tsp Red Hawaiian Salt (or to taste)
• 1 Fresh cayenne chile, seeded, ribs removed and minced (wear gloves for this or you will be sorry)
• 1/2 green bell pepper, seeded, ribs removed and small dice
• 1/4 red onion, small dice
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
• 1 lime, juiced
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

Instruction

For the Salsa

Put coconut, mango, red onion, bell pepper, cayenne, and cilantro into a bowl.

Add lime juice and toss to mix.

Add salt and set aside until ready to serve. After a few minutes you might want to taste again and adjust salt to your taste.

For the Tuna

Liberally sprinkle the tuna steaks with the Ancho chile rub. Add the oil to a heavy bottom skillet and allow to heat over high heat. Just when the oil is glassy in appearance and is thin, add the tuna steaks to the skillet.

Cook for 30 – 60 seconds and turn.

Cook another 30 – 60 seconds and remove to a serving plate. Top with the Mango-Coconut salsa.

Serve and enjoy.