Tuna Tetaki

We had a very similar dish to this one at a restaurant in Legian, Bali called The Balcony.  It was the best food in Bali, in my opinion, and obviously a favourite with famous surfers (looking at all the signed photos).  This dish is a little like a ceviche or sashimi and it is important to use sashimi grade tuna.  It is probably one for special occasions (as sashimi tuna is pretty exie) but it is so good, you want to eat it every day.  It has the classic asian flavours of lime, chilli, lemon grass, garlic, ginger etc and it leaves your palate feeling all tingly, clean and refreshed.  I served this in the centre of the table and gave everyone a set of chopsticks. There were only a couple of black eyes and broken noses as we fought over the last piece, so all in all, I would say the meal was a huge a success!

Serves 6-8 as an entree

1 kg of sashimi grade tuna
1 stalk of lemongrass (white part only)
2 cm piece of ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic
1 long red chilli, sliced
1/2 cup of coriander leaves
3 kaffir lime leaves, very finely sliced
1/2 cup of light soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 tbs fish sauce
1/4 cup of rice wine vinegar
2 tsp castor sugar
1/2 a lime, quartered and very finely sliced
1/2 a lime to rub over the tuna

Finely chop the lemongrass, ginger and garlic together.  Place it in a mortar and pestle and give it a bit of a bash as well, just to release all the oils and really get the flavours going.  Add the soy, lime juice, fish sauce, rice wine vinegar and castor sugar and give a really good stir to combine.

Remove the tuna from the fridge and rub it with 1/2 a lime all over, squeezing the juice out as you go.  This will start the tuna "cooking".  Allow to sit for a few minutes before slicing as thinly as you can.  Arrange all the pieces on a platter in a haphazard, messy kind of fashion.  Scatter the, chilli, coriander, lime leaves and thinly sliced lime wedges over the top and drizzle over the dressing.  Amazing!!