Monday, December 03, 2007

Fresh Tuna Stir-Fry & Cannelloni- Cooking with Asra

On Thursday, Naseer uncle's 13-year old daughter came over to our place after school. Uncle was coming home (the doctors have told him bed rest for 3 months minimum) and Rizwan had gone to pick him up, my parents were out grocery shopping so it was upto Asra and I to make dinner.
I taught her a few things, and here are two awesome recipes from Thursday's menu.

Fresh Tuna Stir Fry
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 1/4 lbs fresh tuna, cut into 1-inch cubes*
1/4 cup low-sodium teriyaki sauce**
1 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup vertically sliced onions
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
Additionally, you can marinate it with spices beforehand.

1. In a bowl, combine lime juice and tuna.
2. In a small bowl, combine teriyaki sauce and cornstarch, stirring with a whisk.
3. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over med-high heat.Add in onion, ginger, and garlic; stir-fry 2 minutes.Add in fish mixture; stir-fry 2 minutes. Add teriyaki mixture; stir-fry 30 seconds or until slightly thick.

Cannelloni with Cheese, Spinach and Walnuts

12 Barilla cannelloni
2 cups milk (700ml)
1 cup ricotta cheese (500g)
400g Parmesan and marble cheddar/halloumi cheese**
150g fresh spinach
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup chopped almonds
3 tbsp butter
1/4 cup flour
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

In a pot, melt the butter on low heat, and slowly add the flour, milk (previously boiled). Whisk. Add all the cheese (except 1/2 of Parmesan), salt and pepper and let them melt together. In another saucepan, cook the spinach coarsely chopped in olive oil for 5 minutes.
Mix it all with the nuts and fill the cannelloni. Spread half the cheese cream at the bottom of a pyrex baking dish and place the filled cannelloni at the top. Cover with the remaining sauce and cook for 40 minutes at 180 degrees Celcius.

*Chopping up a fresh tuna fish was not fun. It was the complete fish with the eye and all. Eeks!
But I had to do it because my father insisted that I make the tuna. I only managed to cut half, the rest, I mixed with the ingredients and put it in the oven for baking.

**I had asked my parents to get teriyaki sauce and it was quite the experience for them. They called me 3-4 times from Carrefour! I've never found Parmesan cheese here, and even hazelnuts are an extremely hard find in Al Ain...

***The original recipe uses gorgonzola and percorino, I just used marble cheddar :)

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