A Little Southwest with Night Grilling

There are basic taste notes with each culture's cuisine. Italian cuisine includes garlic and basil, Vietnamese typically includes fish sauce and cilantro, and similarly Southwest cooking includes cumin and grilling. Tonight, we made another very simple pantry meal with nothing more than frozen tuna, canned black beans, tomato, and garlic (and some fresh herbs).

I think I'm developing an acute case of laziness. The dishes I've created lately (with the exception of the mussels) have been pantry meals. Here's yet another. It includes:

1 Can of black beans















1/3 cup of olive oil for dressing

















fistfull of fresh herbs (whatever you or your neighbor have on hand)--in this case it's parsely and peppery Greek basil

















2 Tbs vinegar--in this case Champagne vinegar (you can use lemon juice or any other type of acid)

1/2 cup diced tomatoes (isn't this lovely? we picked it from Hollin Farm the other weekend)

mix all together with 1 Tbs cumin and season with salt and pepper

We thawed out two frozen tuna steaks (conveniently individually cryopacked, found at our local Costco!) in a bowl of cold water. This only takes about 45 minutes and is much better than using the microwave...

Made a quick marinade of 2 Tbs coarse ground mustard, 1/3 cup Worcestishire, 1 tsp cumin, chopped garlic, and 3 Tbs olive oil--marinate for about 20 minutes (it doesn't take long)

Then grill the fish for about 1.5 minutes aside (check out Mr. Roganista's skillz, kids...all done by flash light! Notice the final tap tap--so fancy)

Voila, quick Southwest tuna on blackbean salad by candle light on the deck...