Tônu Chtetha

Tuesday 23 January
(our last night at home)

That's how they spelled it in the book, Mediterranean Seafood. It's Algerian. You take two nice piece fish. Embed it in a marinade of:
• 1 onion
• 1 TBSP paprika
• 1/2 tsp hot pepper (we used pimenton della Vera)
• 1 TBSP cumin
all grinded up with
• juice of one lemon.
While it's marinating, made a nice tomato sauce. Ours was
• a clove of garlic fried in
• olive oil
• the last of the paper-bag-ripened winter tomatoes, grinded up with a can of tomatoes,
• and more cumin.
Here's the cool part:
Put in the bottom of a baking dish
• 2 sprigs of bay leaves
• put the tuna with the marinade on top, on top of the bay leaves (do I make myself obscure?)
• pour the tomato sauce over and around.
Cover and bake at 375º for 40 minutes.
The bay flavor permeates the tuna very subtly. The onion paste on top flavors the fish from the top. The nice tomato sauce keeps everything lovely and moist.