Moscow Food Co-op Recipes

Omnivoria:
Tuna De-Mystifyed

Several months ago in this column, I introduced readers to EcoFish, a company that provides sustainably caught and farmed seafood. Recently, a new product has been added to the selection of really high quality and tasty seafood from EcoFish available in the Co-op’s freezer case, ahi tuna from Hawaii. Because there are quite a few varieties of tuna, and because simply the mention of tuna sets off my own paranoid mercury alarm (Don’t eat canned tuna (especially if you’re pregnant or nursing)! It’s too high in mercury!), I thought it was a topic worth examining in greater detail.

First and foremost, I had to get straightened out for myself just what ahi tuna is, and how it differs from yellowfin, bluefin, albacore or any other kind. Turns out that ahi tuna can either be yellowfin (Thunnus albacares) or bigeye (Thunnus obesus), two very similar species. The ahi tuna from EcoFish is bigeye tuna that is caught by trolling. Trolling involves individually hooked and baited lines being slowly dragged behind a boat, and is much more similar to the way individuals have been fishing for centuries than the commercial longline or purse seine methods of catching tuna.

For those readers who have a morbid interest in the horrors of corporate fisheries, here’s why longline and purse seine fishing are bad (you can print out handy reference cards with this information on them from www.seafoodwatch.org):

Longlines are, just as they sound, long fishing lines (anywhere from one to forty miles in length) that run horizontally in the water. They have a whole bunch of individual vertical hooked and baited lines attached to them. The longlines are left to sit and attract fish for a while, and then retrieved. The problem with them is that they attract all kinds of things that they’re not meant to catch, including endangered species such as sea turtles. Their bait can also attract sea birds, which will dive for them, and get caught on the hooks or entangled in the lines.

Purse seines are large nets with drawstrings that are placed around an entire school of fish. Then the drawstring is used to pull the bottom of the net closed (effectively creating a sort of purse that captures the fish), and the fish are removed from the net. This is the method most responsible for catching dolphins along with the tuna (since schools of tuna often swim with dolphins). Although consumer outcry has resulted in dolphins being released from the nets alive, frequent catching and releasing apparently is quite stressful to the dolphins, whose population has not significantly recovered. And all this is to say nothing of the sharks, sea turtles and other fish that can also get caught in the nets.

So on to the mercury. My fears about tuna are not completely unfounded. According to Environmental Defense, most tuna is a health concern because of the levels of mercury it contains. Bluefin tuna has higher mercury levels than other species (and is also a slower-growing species, which means its populations are declining) and should generally be avoided altogether. Yellowfin, bigeye, and albacore are also health concerns because of the levels of mercury they contain (although better ecological choices because they reproduce very quickly and their populations are stable). But the good news is that the fish of these species that are caught by trolling or pole-and-line methods (picture my Uncle John in his boat with his fishing pole and a beer—some commercial fish is caught this way also) tend to be younger, smaller fish that have less mercury contamination, and are therefore safer to eat.

I was thrilled when I read this, because my Uncle John really does go out and fish for tuna—and albacore at that, which is generally the worst kind of canned tuna one can buy (it’s what you find in a can of ‘solid white’ tuna, as opposed to ‘chunk light’ tuna, which tends to be yellowfin). And my Aunt Bettie cans the tuna he catches and sends it to us for Christmas, and it is really, really yummy.

So the moral of the story is generally, when shopping for any kind of tuna, whether canned, fresh or frozen, to look for fish that are caught by trolling or pole-and-line methods. It’s healthier to eat, and produces far less bycatch than longline or purse seine methods.

EcoFish frozen ahi tuna is wonderful—firm, rich, flavorful, and not at all fishy tasting or smelling. In short, just what I would expect from an EcoFish product. We ate it in a really tasty summer salad that my mom sent us the recipe for. She insisted that we had to try it because my dad, who goes months at a time without saying anything about any of the food he’s served, raved about it. And for good reason: it’s delicious.

Tropical Tuna Salad (serves 4)

Dressing (makes about ½ cup):
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
1 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 Tbsp. honey
3 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro

Salad:
4 EcoFish ahi tuna steaks
Salad mix
1 mango, pitted, diced and peeled
½ red onion, halved and thinly sliced
¼ cup pickled ginger

Whisk dressing ingredients together in a small bowl, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Season tuna with salt and pepper. Quickly sear tuna in a well-heated grill pan or over a hot grill until well browned, but still rare inside, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer to a cutting board and slice thinly.  In a large salad bowl, toss salad mix with mango and red onion. Add dressing to taste, reserving some to drizzle on top of fish, and gently toss. Divide salad equally among four plates. Place sliced tuna next to salad. Drizzle reserved dressing over tuna and garnish with pickled ginger.

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