Tuna shish with chermoula and preserved lemons
Tuna is a very robust fish so it cooks beautifully on a BBQ, it retains flavour and moisture and the slight smoke works so well with the oiliness of the fish. The chermoula paste is a spicy lemony number that adds real zing – it will keep well in your fridge for a few days, so if there is any left over or you are inclined to double the amount you make, it will work well in a tinned tuna salad or in a sandwich with salted or cured beef. Serve the shish with baked potatoes for a hearty meal.
See more recipes from 'Chasing Smoke'.
To cook without a BBQ
- Use a lightly oiled, preheated griddle pan on your stove and cook just as you would on the fire. Or you could simply use a non-stick frying pan.
This recipe is extracted from 'Chasing Smoke: Cooking over fire around the Levant' by Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich, published by Pavilion Books.
Yield
4 skewers
Ingredients
Ingredients
For the chermoula
Method
Step 1
We like to make this chermoula by hand, chopping everything until very fine, then mixing it with the oil in a small bowl. You could use a pestle and mortar instead to pound the ingredients, in which case add the oil at the end once everything else is well-combined.
Step 2
Cut each tuna steak into four large cubes and thread two on each skewer. Brush well with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and place on a very hot grill to cook and char nice lines. Turn the skewers after a minute and repeat twice more to char the tuna cubes for a minute on each side. We rather like the interior a little raw, but if you don’t, simply cook for 30 seconds more on each side. Remove from the grill, douse with the lemon juice, then top with the chermoula.
