Tuna Tataki Flatbread Pizza

I have now been running this blog for almost four years and over the course of this time, my family’s eating habits have changed entirely. We were always into food and I’ve always experimented with various kinds of cuisines (mostly because traveling to different parts of the world has exposed us to different kinds of foods) but this blog has taken my cooking to a whole different level. My cooking is still that of a home-cook without any foo-foo fine-chef-skills but certainly my repertoire has expanded quite a bit and I pay a lot more attention to little details now. I still cook largely healthy food (with occasional exceptions/indulgences) and as much as possible I try to buy local, organic and non-GMO ingredients (but I am not fanatical about it). This has definitely enhanced the taste of our food. Another big change has been that we eat out less often and when we do eat out, we pick restaurants very carefully. Nowadays we try to go to restaurants that serve things that I cannot make/cook on my own. This has restricted our choices quite a bit.
One of favorite restaurants in Bethesda (it is a suburb of Washington DC) is a Japanese/Asian fusion restaurant called Raku. Over the past fifteen-plus years that I’ve been living in this area, Raku has always been one of our favorite places to go to. The food here is delicious, consistent in quality, with seasonal ingredients and to ward off boredom, every few months a few new dishes are introduced. One of our favorite dishes here is a Tuna Tataki Flatbread Pizza. Tataki refers to a Japanese way of cooking meat – by searing a piece of protein on all sides very briefly on a hot pan (it can be a piece of meat or fish). Tuna Tataki is really delicious because this way you can taste the actual fish without any other ingredients camouflaging the taste of tuna. The only thing is that since the tuna is eating virtually rare, it has to be of very good quality and fresh (basically sushi-grade tuna).
Since we really like this dish at Raku, my son asked me to try to recreate it at home and today I made it for dinner. I made this pizza using a pre-made naan bread (got it at Whole Foods) and with a blend of New Zealand Cheddar and an organic Non-GMO Mozzarella. The sauce I used to drizzle on top was a combination of mayonnaise, Garlic Sriracha and some Sweet and Sour Ketchup (Maggie brand). The microgreens were a combination of Kale sprouts and Sunflower sprouts (also from Whole Foods). The pizza was very easy to make and tasted amazingly good!

Ingredients:

1. ¾ lb of sushi grade fresh tuna
2. Salt and pepper to taste
3. 1 tablespoon olive oil (for searing)
4. 3 cups of shredded Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese (combined half and half)
5. 3 tablespoons of organic Mayonnaise
6. 1 tablespoon of Ketchup
7. 2 teaspoons of garlic Sriracha
8. 3 flat breads (I used pre-made Naans)
9. 1 cup of microgreens

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven at 325F
2. Place a sheet of parchment paper on a cookie sheet and place the three pieces of Naan bread on the paper.

3. Sprinkle equal quantities of shredded cheese on the Naans (about a cup on each).

4. Sprinkle a bit of olive oil on each side of the chunk of tuna. Also add salt and pepper on each side.
5. Heat a nonstick pan on medium heat.

6. Place the piece of tuna on the hot pan and sear it on all the sides for about 2 minutes each.
7. While the Tuna is being seared, place the cookie sheet in the oven and set your timer for about 7-8 minutes.

8. While the cheese is being melted on the flatbread in the oven and the tuna is being seared on all sides, make the sauce by combining the following ingredients in a bowl – mayonnaise, garlic sriracha and ketchup.

9. When the piece of tuna has been seared on sides place it on a cutting board and let it rest for a minute.

10. Take the flatbreads out of the oven when the cheese is melted.

11. Slice the chunk of tuna (against the grain) as thinly as you can. The inside of the tuna should be pink and rare.
12. Place a few slices of the tuna on each flatbread.

13. Add some microgreens on each piece of flatbread and then drizzle some of the mayo-based sauce on each pizza.
14. Serve while everything is still hot. Enjoy!!!

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