Leftover Grilled Tuna Steak

Leftover tuna steak transformed

I grilled some tuna steak the other day and since it's such a simple thing, didn't bother documenting it for a post. Then, surprisingly (with a 22 year-old bottomless pit for food in the house) had an entire steak left over. What to do......

When I originally prepared the tuna for grilling, I wanted to do something different than my usual Asian inspire sesame crust and chill crisp. After Googling around for some inspiration, I made a marinade of Old Bay seasoning,olive oil, lemon and lime juice and some cilantro. After the 3/4" thick steaks sat in the marinade for a couple of hours, it was 2 minutes per side on a 400 degree grill and they were perfectly cooked medium.

Once I got over the shock of having an entire steak left over and the added shock that it didn't get pilfered the next day for breakfast (did you know that 22-year-olds eat leftover dinner for breakfast on a regular basis?), I felt compelled to do something creative with it as part of a refrigerator party of leftover clean-up.

I had some arugula kicking around, but spinach or lettuce would have also created a nice 'bed'. I slicer the steak into 1/4" X2" pieces and arranged them on top of the arugula in a pie plate. I slice a bunch of grape tomatoes in half and placed them around the tuna, and then added some rainbow micro-greens for garnish.

Then it was time to come up with something to dress the dish. Sticking with the Old Bay theme, I decided to play around with an aioli that incorporates the seasoning. I started with mayo, about 3/4C and added a tablespoon of Old Bay seasoning, then some lemon and lime juice (somewhere between 1 and 2 teaspoons each. After a good stir and a small taste, I decided it needed some cilantro so I added about a tablespoon of the cilantro paste in the tube that I keep on hand. Finally, after another taste, some honey (1T+/-). It turned out to be the perfect mix of sweet, tart, salty and savory and was the perfect dressing for the tuna!

The beauty of this is you can do it with pretty much any grilled steak, beef or fish and garnish with whatever you have in the house. And you'll likely be the only one who knows it's repurposed leftovers.