Chef Martín Carrasco is hard at work on his new project, QMO, Quemo’s new restaurant on Ship Street. Ahead of QMO’s launch, he has shared his special signature blue fin tuna recipe which we wanted to share with you.
“We will serve our signature dishes from Quemo, with great ingredients and recipes from around the world. At QMO you can try our special dishes and also get a mouthful of sweetness with our nice dessert menu. I love to cook with nice tasting combinations; I think pairing is the future of food fusion. At QMO we enjoy mixing food and culture using ingredients and cooking styles from everywhere,’’ Chef Martín explained.
Here are some fun facts that might help explain this chef’s love for tuna.
Traditionally tuna has played an important role in Spanish culture. Since the time of the Romans this fish has not only been a part of the Spanish diet, but also a part of their economy as it’s been used for bartering.
It is no coincidence that some of the best tuna fish comes from Spain. Born in the Mediterranean Sea, tuna typically migrate to the Atlantic Ocean where they grow to adulthood before returning to their birth place to reproduce. It is when the tuna return that Spanish fishermen have traditionally caught them.
Asia consumes more than 75% of tuna sold in the world. It’s no surprise then that Asian style has influenced the Spanish tuna’s recipes.
Chef Martín Carrasco describes his passion for Asian ingredients and the care he takes when presenting his dishes:
“I like very much to use Asian ingredients such as seaweed, ginger and sauces. In this recipe I use: ginger, soy sauce, salty fingers (kind of seaweed), atsina cress (baby anisate herb) and extra virgin olive oil.
The most important thing for me is to respect the taste of the tuna fish itself while always trying to cook healthy to take care of my guests. Also I can’t forget that it needs to be visually attractive and to be careful with all the marvellous products and ingredients I cook with”.
If you like this recipe here are some tips to DIY, but remember that the true special blue fin tuna belly will be waiting for you at the new QMO. Make sure you do not miss it!
Ingredients
- Blue fin tuna belly
- Fresh ginger
- Cucumber
- White vinegar (chardonnay)
- Atsina cress
- Salty fingers
- Soy sauce
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Sugar
- Still water
Method
- Ginger olive oil: we must cook 1L of olive oil with 200g of chopped fresh ginger for two hours. After it’s cooked, we chill it.
- Cook and marinade the tuna belly: we have to prepare 2L of boiling water. We chop small portions of tuna belly and boil them each for 3 seconds. After boiling them we soak the cooked tuna in the soy sauce for 2 to 3 hours (depending on the size). The last step with the cooked and marinated tuna is to keep it in a vacuum bag with cold ginger olive oil. We can keep the tuna in ginger olive oil for a maximum of 2 days.
- Marinade cucumber: we must use the vacuum machine to marinade the peeled cucumber in vinegar sauce (1 part vinegar, 2 parts water and 1 part sugar).
- Soy sauce and ginger olive oil sauce: we can do a mix with 1 part soy sauce and 2 parts ginger olive oil. We have to keep this mix chilled to preserve the taste of the ginger.
- The last part of our recipe is to choose the best parts of atsina cress herb and salty finger seaweed. We have to slice the tuna belly and the marinated cucumber and after this we are ready to plate our recipe.
Check more information about the blue fin tuna belly here
QMO
Coming soon to Ship Street in Wanchai
Website / Tel: 2836 0699
