Tuna Steaks à la Fino with Kale Crisps

Saturday 28 January

After all our anniversary indulgences, we thought some simple fish and vegetables would let us off light.  But there's no need to go light on flavor, so we went to the Fino cookbook, Modern Spanish Cooking, for a tuna recipe with over-the-top taste.

For it, you need:

1 zucchino, cut into small dice (a good substitute for Fino's cucumber)

salt

4 thin scallions, chopped small

1 tsp. whole grain Dijon mustard

juice of 1 lemon

a small glugg of honey

2 tuna steaks

fresh ground black pepper

olive oil

Spanish olive oil

In a bowl, toss together zucchino, a touch of salt, scallions, mustard, lemon juice, and honey.  That's the side for your tuna.

Dust the steaks with pepper, and sear quickly in a hot oiled pan.  When rare, set out next to a swath of zucchini cubes, and drizzle with good Spanish olive oil.  Ours was Cortijo de Suerte Alta Marqués de Prado, from Baena.

Then there was the kale, which we bought today at Findlay Market.  We learned to love kale crisps back in May.  Here's the recipe, just in case it disappears from elsewhere on the Web.

1 bunch kale (ours was very curly - see below)

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350º.  Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

Wash the kale carefully; pull the leaves from the stems into bite-size pieces, and dry them thoroughly with a salad spinner. Drizzle leaves with olive oil, toss with your hands until well oiled, and sprinkle with salt.  Bake until edges are brown, and the leaves are crisp.  They say that flat kale takes 10 to 15 minutes, but curly is more like 20+.

We put the kale in a big bowl on the table, so we could grab a crisp or two while noshing down onto our tuna and zucchini.  As a side or as a snack, it's addictive.