Ahi Tuna Salad - custom designed, custom prepared

When you are a chef, many people ask, “What are your favorites?” For me the Ahi Tuna Salad is one of my own personal favorites for two reasons. It was one of my personal creations inspired by my mother. When I grew up, my mother was a chef and was influenced by the likes of Muriel Hemingway, Julia Childs and others of such caliber. She taught me at an early age that less is more – use less heavy ingredients to create more intense flavors.

The Ahi Tuna Salad does just this. I purposely kept it simple to bring out the flavor of the tuna and vegetables we use in the salad. The ingredients are all high quality with emphasis on fresh – nothing artificial in this salad. This allows me to amplify the flavor and let the salad do the talking. When I first came up with it, I wanted to focus on more of sashimi type salad where we could use a very high grade tuna. It simply works better.

I finish off the salad with some great vegetables, such as green beans that will be coming in next week from Duris Farms in Puyallup. These are incredible beans that you have to taste to appreciate. We add some Kalamata Olives, Basil, Grilled Potatoes (from the Skykomish Valley) and finish with a light lemon, basil vinaigrette dressing. I can taste it now – which is why it is one of my personal favorites. It is healthy, low carb salad that just offers great flavor.

I hope you get a chance to enjoy it and leave me your comments on what you think.