tuna carpaccio

So I’ve talked before, about my love of serve yourself “bars.”

It’s a must with a large family, who has a variety of tastes, and a mother who doesn’t want to cook more than one meal and evening. Serve yourself bars, make it easy for the kids (and grown-ups) to customize their meals to meet their individual tastes.

Pizza bars, baked potato bars, taco bars, charcuterie dinner bars, breakfast bars, salad bars, bagel bars, sandwich bars, etc. All of these let me prepare one meal, but let the kids pick and choose their own favorite toppings/ingredients. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Our current favorite, thanks to covid, is a sushi bar. My kids all love sushi, but only 3 like raw fish, and only two like spice mixed with their fish (the other is a wasabi queen, like me). One prefers salmon, one prefers ahi, and jamie and I pretty much like everything.

We do however, miss going to our favorite restaurants and eating all of our favorites, so we try to get take out for special occasions, and for other, more normalized meals, make our favorites at home.

This dish, no longer exists in the universe. But it was one of our long time favorites. On date nights, we loved going to restaurants that had a large assortments of shared plates or appetizers. We don’t eat individual meals, we order a bunch of items that we can share a small portion of. It’s honestly the best way. We get to sample an assortment, not leave feeling overly full, and get to taste and talk about really good food. And, we definitely have restaurants on repeat for favorite dishes.

This, was one of those dishes. And then, the restaurant was bought out, a new chef was brought in, and the dish was not the same. Like, send it back to the kitchen (which we never do), not the same. And then? They took it completely off the menu.

And now, I’ve recreated it, and made it my own. And we? Are. Obsessed.

Ingredients:

~ 1/4 lb sashimi grade ahi, thinly sliced into 5 slices

1/4 cup faro

1 Tbsp avocado oil

1/2 cup water

chili oil

1/2 tsp maldon finishing salt

1/4 lemon, charred on grill, gas stove, or on cast iron skillet

Directions:

In a small saucepan, bring water to boil. Add faro. Cover and turn to low, and toss with fork every 10 minutes until water is evaporated. Remove faro and pat dry with paper towels.

Heat oil in small cast iron pan, on medium-high until shimmering. Add faro, and stir repeatedly until crispy and golden brown. Drain, and let sit on paper towel.

Take your sliced ahi, and layer between two sheets of plastic wrap. Pound until almost translucent.

Plate ahi on platter. Sprinkle faro (you won’t use all) over ahi. Drizzle chili oil over tuna and faro to your heat preference 1/2 tsp - 2 tsp. Sprinkle maldon salt over.

Squeeze charred lemon over entire plate