This is a great summer main course that’s very easy but seems fancy and special at the same time. And even if it is easy, it’s also special since a thick, high quality piece of tuna like this is a real splurge. Every now and then, though, it’s totally worth it.

You want to use the thickest piece of tuna you can find, and high quality since it’s only going to be barely seared. At our local fish market, we were able to get a piece that was 2″ thick, which was perfect.

The only other trick is to get the grill very hot. You only want to be able to hold your hand up to the fire for about 1-2 seconds; that’s how you know it’s hot enough. Other than that, all this needs is a couple summer vegetables (we served it with simply prepared squash and zucchini, a recipe I’ll share soon) and some friends to share it with.

Seared Tuna
This rub is a variation on our favorite rub for steak, with the addition of lemon zest.

2 cloves of garlic
zest of 1 lemon
rosemary or basil, finely chopped
salt
freshly ground black pepper
high quality tuna steak(s), at least 1″ thick and preferably thicker

Make a paste of garlic, lemon zest, and equal parts (same as the garlic) herbs, salt, and pepper. (It’ll be about a half a tablespoon or so of each, but we just eyeball it.) Two cloves of garlic and the zest of one lemon, with equal parts of the other ingredients, meant we had about the right amount of rub for our 2″ thick steak, so if you’re making more, you can just scale everything up. Rub this on all sides of the tuna.

Let sit at room temperature while you prepare the grill. We like to use a charcoal grill for the flavor, though gas would be fine too. Once the grill is very hot, sear the tuna for a minute and a half per side. If it’s thick, you may need to do the edges for another thirty seconds or so each. Remove from the heat and let rest for a few minutes.

Slice thinly against the grain and serve.

I don’t put a recipe up on this site unless I think it’s worth making again, but I have to tell you — I love these pickled carrots. They’re fresh and refreshingly crunchy, sweet, sour, salty, with a little kick, and all that and healthy, too! I love to eat them as a quick pre- or post- workout snack, or as a side dish for sandwiches or salad. I even had a few on my way out the door this morning after breakfast. And before I start getting any questions – no, I’m not pregnant; they’re just that good.

Even better than how good they taste is how easy they are to make. Cutting the carrots into pieces is the most time-consuming part, and if you make a big batch, they’ll keep in the fridge for weeks.

If you like these, but aren’t so big on the spices, you might also want to try these marinated carrots from my grandmother Pat. They’re another great refrigerator staple to keep around in the summer.

Spicy Carrot Pickles
These quick pickles are a takeoff on this recipe from Bon Appetit, but with different spices. In terms of the spices, I really just used whatever I found in my cabinet, and encourage you to do the same. I think the carrots, garlic, lemon, and vinegar are about the only things essential for this recipe.

6-8 medium carrots (or about 5 large ones), cut into thin sticks, about 2″ long, or whatever shape you like, such as quarter or coins
peel from one lemon (removed in strips)
4 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3″ piece of ginger, cut into thin sticks

1 cup water
2/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon chili flakes (or more if desired; with 1 teaspoon my pickles had a very mild kick, but the chili flakes I have on hand right now are pretty mild themselves)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon dried savory
1 teaspoon dried oregano

Pack carrots, lemon peel, garlic and ginger into a one quart jar.

Combine water, vinegar, sugar, salt, and spices in a microwave safe container. Bring to a boil in the microwave, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar and salt.

Pour the brine and all the spices over the carrots (they should be covered). Let cool, close tightly, and refrigerate at least overnight. Pickles will keep for several weeks in the fridge. However, they will get spicier with time.

Our friend Saket hosted an “Iron Chef” competition at his place earlier in the summer. He’d earlier held a brainstorming session to come up with theme ideas. When he’d been to a similar competition before, an ingredient had been picked and everyone had been expected to bring a dish including that ingredient. We decided to change things up and chose a much vaguer theme for this event — every dish must include either a cliche or a pun.

Matt’s and my entries included “American as Apple Pie” (apple pie shaped like a flag), “headcheese/cheesehead” (a cheeseball shaped like a head), and “toe jam” (boot-shaped cheese crackers with bacon-bourbon jam to spread on the toe). We didn’t ever pick a winner, but the highlight of the night for me was “cool as a cucumber” from Joey — ice cream flavored with cucumber and mint. It was so delicious that we decided to try to replicate it a few weeks later. Not sure if this is the same way Joey made it or not, but we thought our version turned out pretty well. A deliciously refreshing way to end a summer evening!

Cucumber mint ice cream

Loosely based on this recipe from Food52 and the vanilla ice cream recipe from Bittman’s How To Cook Everything

1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and diced
1/2 c granulated sugar
2 cups half and half or milk
6 egg yolks (can reduce down to 2 for a less rich ice cream)
2/3 c mint leaves, packed
1 Tablespoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 cup cream or more half and half or milk
1/3 cup of chocolate chips or other mix-in (we used some chocolate “crunchies” we had on hand that are crisped rice coated in chocolate)

Puree the cucumber finely. Set aside.

In a double boiler over simmering water, heat 2 c half and half or milk and 1/4 c sugar. Meanwhile, separate the eggs and whisk the yolks with the remaining sugar until light in color. While whisking, gradually add about 1/2 cup of the simmering milk to the eggs to temper them. Add the egg mixture to the remaining milk and cook over a double boiler, stirring nearly constantly, until thickened. This will take about 5-10 minutes. The custard is thick enough when it coats the back of a spoon and you can run a finger through the custard on the spoon and see the “track” from your finger.

Remove from heat and add the pureed cucumber, mint leaves, vanilla extract, and salt. Let steep about an hour.

Add the remaining cup of cream (or more milk or half and half) and chill thoroughly. (Either chill in an ice bath or leave in the fridge for several hours or overnight.) Strain out the cucumber puree and mint.

Freeze in an ice cream maker. When it’s nearly frozen, stir in any desired mix-ins.

One of Matt’s favorite desserts is lemon squares, but when I made them this time, I decided to change it up and use lime juice instead.  I also added some ginger, again going for that ginger-lime combination I use for sherbet a few weeks ago.  This time, I again didn’t add enough ginger though, so if you want that to come through, add more!  Fresh ginger in the filling might help, too.

Everyone enjoyed the flavor of these with lime instead of lemon.  In fact I think I might like them even better than the original!  The extra tang from the lime just seems particularly summery. (more…)

Well, looks like the updates didn’t go quite as smoothly as we had hoped.  If you’re reading this through an RSS reader, you may have noticed the pictures weren’t showing up for a couple days, and if you tried to access anything on Friday during the day, you may have noticed that almost all the links weren’t working.  Both of these were a result of our adding some code to try to stop hotlinking — I’ve been seeing some pictures showing up on other sites via hotlinking without attribution lately, and in trying to nip that in the bud we broke some other things.  Anyway…. we think (hope!) that everything is fixed now.  If you are still having issues, please let us know either via comment here or email to admin@meltingonline.com.

And, to make it up to you, let me share the apricot-cherry crumble I threw together the other night.  This is another to file under “tasty-but-won’t-win-any-beauty-contests,” but it’s deliciously tart-sweet, with some crunch from the topping, it’s quick and easy, and it’s the perfect way to use up any of that wonderful summer fruit that you haven’t quite managed to eat out-of-hand before it starts to get kinda squishy.

I had some apricots left from our trip to the Ferry Building Farmer’s Market in SF with Phillip and Jammie last weekend, and they needed to be eaten, stat.  I also had some cherries, so those were the two fruits I used, but really, this idea works with any summer fruit, and especially with the myriad different stone fruits.   You can use any amount of fruit, just bake it in a different size dish, and since there’s no pie crust to fuss with, you just make however much topping you need.  I ate mine topped with whipped cream, but it would also be good with ice cream, or just by itself.  Here are the proportions I used, but scale it up or down and substitute as you like.

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