Your new fish taco: Brined ahi tuna, served warm from the pan
Visitors to Mexico City are often surprised by the size of the city’s wholesale fish market, the second-largest in the world, says Danny Mena in Made in Mexico (Rizzoli). But my hometown “has a phenomenal seafood culture for a landlocked city,” a culture that brings together all the country’s regional cuisines and absorbs elements of others from around the globe.
The dish below is meant to be served with tortillas—homemade, if you’re willing, from fresh masa or masa harina. But I could say the same about nearly any Mexican recipe I’d share, because “almost all Mexican food is intended to be eaten as a taco,” with the tortilla serving as a sort of edible spoon. The recipe below comes from a popular restaurant, Puntarena, that combines high-end ceviches and fish tacos with Japanese-, Spanish-, and Italian-inspired dishes. The word “carnitas” refers to pork that has been slow-cooked in lard, so carnitas de atún is “not carnitas at all”—except that the brined ahi tuna “looks a little like pork carnitas and has the same soulsatisfying effect in a taco.”
This is one of the recipes I turn to for a holiday or special-event meal. And yes, you can serve it on a plate and eat it with a fork, but without the tortilla, “you’d be losing part of the soul of Mexican cuisine.” 1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 2 limes (about ¼ cup) 1 tbsp soy sauce
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ tsp kosher salt or to taste Corn tortillas, hot, for serving
To make the brine, purée the salt, sugar, bay leaf, clove, allspice, and 1 cup of water in a blender until smooth. Add 3 cups of water and purée until the salt and sugar dissolve. Pour the brine over the tuna in a glass bowl, cover, and refrigerate for 4 hours.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix the onion, tomatillos, chile, cilantro, mint, olive oil, lime juice, and soy sauce, and refrigerate for 4 hours.
When ready to cook, remove the tuna from the brine and pat dry. Heat the vegetable oil in a large nonstick pan over mediumhigh heat. Add the tuna and cook until the fish is browned well on both sides and cooked through, with no red left in the center, 6 to 10 minutes total, depending on the thickness of the tuna.
Working quickly so the fish stays hot, chop the tuna roughly and combine it with the vegetable mixture. Salt to taste and serve with hot corn tortillas. Serves 6.