The Quay
Tuna Collar cooked Japanese style
Tuna Collar
This is an expensive cut of fish and although it cooks quiclky, can be a stress to cook - at least it was for me! The tuna in question was line caught from UK waters - obviously not by me.
This recipe is all about the fish and so I make no apology on this occasion regarding the salad vegetables. Other than EVOO and lemon juice, no need for a sauce.
Ingredients
Large/thick collar: 800 g–1.2 kg+
Sea Salt
mixed salad vegetables - we used beetroot, water cress, spinach, cherry tomatoes, preserved artechokes, lemon
some olive oil mixed with lemon juice to dress the salad.
Method
Wash and pat dry the collar on both sides. Qrap the thinner, narrower part of the cut with foil to prevent it from burning.
Get the oven to 250C.
Prepare the salad and set out on serving platter because once you start cooking there will be limited time for anything else.
Make sure that you have space to remove a very hot pan from the oven to turn the joint towards the end of cooking.
When the oven is at temperature, place the tuna collar in the centre on a rack in a tray skin side down. This is quite important for the end result apparently. Our collar was about 6cm at widest and so we gave it 25 /30 minutes or so in the oven,
After the first cooking time, remove from oven and turn over carefully. remove the foil at this time.
Switch to grill on a high setting ( or do whatever you have to go to have the grill at a high setting) and grill for 5 minutes. There is alot of fat so watch that it doesn't catch.
We didn't have a fire but when we opened the oven after 30 minutes we set off our fire alarm and the fire suppression system went into guarding mode - fortunately no water at that point. Depending on your kitchen and time of the year, (UK tuna season is, I guess August) it might be an idea to have a few windows open before you start cooking.
Remove from grill after 5 minutes and place carefully on the serving platter with the salad already hopefully laid out.
Drizzle vegetables with EVOO and lemon juice and prepare for a gastronomic experience
Observations
This was our first attempt at collar. Indeed until we bought it we had never heard of it. It was all about the fish on this occasion and the biggest challenges were a) whether to cook it skin-side up or skin-side down b) how to stop the fire suppression from starting to mist.
Next time we'll a)make a sauce of some kind and b) switch off the fire suppression in advance.
Cooking times approximately are ( at 250C fan):
Thickest part of collar | Approx. cooking time |
2–3 cm | 12–16 min |
4 cm | 16–20 min |
5 cm | 20–25 min |
6 cm | 25–30 min |
7–8 cm | 30–38 min |
The best indicator is the meat rather than the clock. Push a knife or skewer into the thickest fleshy section next to the bone. The flesh should be hot, moist and easily separating from the bone, rather than translucent and resistant.