This was good but not quite as good as it sounded. The flavor of the marinade and the sauce was delicious but the peas were hard to work with. The coating was so thick that the tuna didn't cook fast enough (and I was going for rare) so the peas just ended up burning--which wouldn't have been so bad except then the wasabi taste was lost. Maybe I misunderstood the recipe--"crushed" to me means there are still some chunks in the mix. I think it would have been better to toss the peas into a food processor and grind them to a bread-crumb texture. I'll try it that way next time.
I thought this recipe was delicious! There are only 2 of us so I cut the recipe in half. Even with only 1/2 pound of wasabi peas there were a lot left over. Next time I will only buy 1/4 of a pound. (I can buy them in bulk at a local market) I used a food processor to crush the peas. I had a hard time with the coating; a lot of it stuck to the pan and some of it burned. Luckily my husband likes that burnt flavor. After the steaks were cooked I sprinkled some of the unused crushed peas over the steaks to bring back some of that wasabi kick. The sauce was delicious. I didn't have any saki so I used Chinese rice wine. This was all-in-all a terrific way to cook tuna. My husband loved it. He has spent some time in Japan and really enjoyed the flavors. I will definately make this again.
the sauce and marinade was great. I used wasabi paste instead of the peas based on other reviews of burning and such. I still had some burning but I think I just need to adjust the recipe a bit.
I used a pestle and mortar to thoroughly crush up the peas but they gave the tuna an off-putting gritty texture. The wasabi flavor was also lacking - I wish I had whisked some wasabi paste into the marinade. Oh well thanks anyway.
Great use of the wasabi peas. My husband loved the flavors in the marinade and the spice of the wasabi. Great way to prepare tuna steaks!! Congrats on being a finalist!
I enjoyed the recipe but I found that the wasabi peas didn't have all that much kick to start with. So I wouldn't blame the lack of kick on the recipe. Some way of adding additional wasabi to the pea mixture would be good.
I think the flavor of this would have been really good but the "crust" burned and quite frankly burned wasabi just doesn't taste good. I also managed to overcook the tuna but that's not the recipe's fault - it's mine. I will try this again though because we love both tuna and wasabi around here. When I try again I'll use wasabi paste you can buy in a tube from the store and use it as a glaze.
These were not as good as I had hoped. I took the advice of others and ground the wasabi peas in the food processor. And instead of breading the tuna with the crumbs I just sprinkled some on the top instead of baking. Even though I ground them there were a few pea chunks that were like little pieces of gravel when you bit into them. I also didn't care for the flavor of the marinade and it's due to the Chinese 5 spice powder. The cinnamon in the powder is overpowering for the tuna in my opinion. I love tuna but next time I will stick to the sesame seed coated method. It's always fun trying new things though and we still ate these tuna steaks. But we won't make them this way again.
I used the paste whole wheat Italian bread crumbs parmesan and 1 tbl of brown sugar for the crust for the marinade I used the recipe for the Japanese chicken wings
