Our San Francisco host turns guest cook: Blackberry Balsamic Pan-seared Tuna

Tuna quickly pan-seared with capers and parsley is served with a drizzle of blackberries, balsamic vinegar and garlic. Recipe below, courtesy of one of our San Francisco hosts.

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]W[/su_dropcap]e like to do our homework before we travel, carefully researching museum exhibits, places to eat (and drink), good walking/shopping neighborhoods, even overhyped things to ignore. On our recent trip to San Francisco, we did none of that. Just told our various friends we were coming and showed up. It was glorious.

Friends, after all, were the focus of this trip—three sets of them scattered across San Francisco, Oakland and Palo Alto. We hadn’t seen any of them in far too long. Cara and Jun invited us to stay with them in their lovely home in San Francisco’s Noe Valley neighborhood.

Cara is Cara Black, the New York Times bestselling author of the Private Investigator Aimée Leduc series, set in Paris. Cara had returned from a research trip to Paris just days before we arrived. While we were visiting, she was launching a book tour for the 19th book in the series, Murder in Bel-Air, with a couple of local readings. She still made time for us, walking us quite literally up and down the hilly streets of their neighborhood, introducing us to cozy lunch places, their favorite coffee spot and any number of boutiques and shops, including a wine store I visited more than once during the long weekend. She was also an invaluable guide for negotiating the city’s excellent mass transit system.

If you look up polymath in the dictionary, you will find Jun Ishimuro’s picture. A former highly-regarded seller of art photography books, Jun works with the Golden Gate Parks National Conservancy. He also surfs. He also plays and composes music—Jun is currently working with Indian musicians, creating and performing modern music based on classic Indian ragas. And happily for us (and for this post), he also cooks.

Jun and Cara’s kitchen opens onto a dining room with wraparound windows and a long, rustic table. We spent a lot of time at that table, watching Anna’s hummingbirds in the morning over coffee, tea and pastries, consuming needed caffeine and snacks in the afternoon. And on our second evening in town, Cara, Marion and I sat at the candle-illuminated table, eating cheeses Cara had just brought back from Paris, while Jun cooked dish after wonderful dish.

The process was as relaxed and thoughtful as the food was delicious. Jun worked with no cookbooks, but told me about a poem on food from 350BC that informs his cooking, “Hedypatheia” (meaning “Pleasant Living” or “Life of Luxury”). It was written by the Greek writer and noted gourmand (but not cook) Archestratus. One thing I love about spending time with Jun is moments just like this.

The dishes, coming out of the kitchen one by one, included mussels and clams with fish balls in a broth of wine and the juices of the shellfish; beautiful, crisp green beans; Japanese-style duck breasts pan-seared with scallions and soy sauce; and the tuna shown above. The tuna came out of the kitchen first, when there was still enough light at the table to photograph it. Wine consumption may also explain why I have no photos of the other dishes. I asked Jun to share how he prepared the tuna and he obliged. I don’t have precise measurements and times here, but I think you will get the idea.

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Blackberry Balsamic Pan-seared Tuna

Tuna quickly pan-seared with capers and parsley is served with a drizzle of blackberries, balsamic vinegar and garlic.

Course Appetizer, seafood

Servings 4 as a starter

Ingredients

• 1 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 to 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 to 4 blackberries, depending on size
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• an 8- to 12-ounce tuna fillet
• olive oil
• capers
• chopped fresh parsley

Instructions

• In a small saucepan, cook the balsamic vinegar over very low heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce it by about 75% of its original volume; this could take about 30 minutes.
• With a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic. Add the blackberries and mash everything together. Transfer to a small serving bowl and stir in 2 tablespoons of the reduced balsamic vinegar. Season to taste with salt and pepper—it should taste more tangy and sweet than savory.
• Cook the tuna. Heat olive oil in a small frying pan over high heat until almost smoking. Season the tuna with salt and pepper. Add tuna to the pan with some capers and chopped parsley, and sear until just browned on one side. Turn and brown on the other side. The tuna should remain rare to raw in the middle.
• Transfer to a serving plate, spooning the capers and cooked parsley over the fillet. Sprinkle more fresh parsley over the tuna. Serve along with the balsamic blackberry mixture, inviting guests to drizzle it over tuna bites.