Tuna steaks au poivre with french onion sauce and garlic scapes

After a weekend at a bed and breakfast in New Hampshire where we learned how to make a true French onion soup, my fiancée and I stopped at a seafood shack nearby, where deliciously fresh tuna steaks were on offer. Tuna steak and French onion soup seem like unlikely mates, but I was in the mood for a classic sauce a poivre, and the rich savoriness of the soup seemed like it might just work as a replacement for the more conventional veal demi-glace base. A quick glance through our selections from this week's CSA box turned up some lovely garlic scapes — and here are the results!

This was my first encounter with garlic scapes. They're so exciting!

They're so spring-y and green. They have a delightful flavor — zesty, slightly hot, and reminiscent of garlic without the pungency when raw, but savory and green when gently cooked. We're going to use the latter form in this recipe, cut up into small pieces that we can scatter over the fish, but we'll save one nice curly one for each plate as a garnish.

Tuna steaks au poivre

• 2 4oz tuna steaks
• 1 tbsp. Good black peppercorns, cracked coarsely
• 1 tbsp. kosher or coarse sea salt
• 1 tbsp. virgin olive oil
• 1 bunch garlic scapes, trimmed of dark green parts and sliced

First, rinse the tuna steaks in cold water, then pat them dry with paper towels. This will remove a little bit of fishy odor if the steaks are a little less than perfectly fresh. Let them come to room temperature before continuing.

Crack the black pepper and sprinkle it and the salt onto both sides of the steaks, patting each side after seasoning it so the spices stay attached.

Heat a cast iron pan (or other thick, heavy searing pan) over high heat, then add 1 tbsp. olive oil.

Sear the steaks about one to two minutes on each side until their surface turns white (which means it's cooked) with some blackening. The middle of the fish should be warmed but still jiggly and deep red — it's tuna, after all!

Remove the steaks from the pan as soon as they're cooked, then add the garlic. Toss it quickly in the hot oil to cook it slightly, then remove them from the pan and put them on the steaks.

Yum!

Vegetarian french onion sauce au poivre

• 2 onions
• 2 carrots
• 3 tbsp. butter, divided
• 1 sprig fresh thyme, stripped to leaves, or 1 tsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. kosher or coarse sea salt
• 10 whole black peppercorns
• 1 dried bay leaf
• 1/3 c. brandy
• 1/3 c. heavy cream

Our sauce au poivre is essentially a creamed reduction of french onion soup. First, of course, we have to make the soup.

Cut the tops and bottoms off your onions, cut them in half from top to bottom, and peel them. Place each half cut-side down on your cutting board, then cut with the ridges in the onion. Your slices should fall apart neatly into lovely, similarly-sized crescents, perfect for caramelizing.

Peel and dice the carrots in whatever way suits you.

Heat 2 tbsp. of the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, then add the onions and carrots.

Allow them to cook for five minutes or so until the bottom layer of onions is golden-brown and you can smell their sweetness, then stir. Continue stirring at about five-minute intervals until all the onions are well-caramelized. The caramelization of the onions at this step is the key to good french onion soup, so don't rush them, and resist the temptation to stir more frequently — this will cause the onions to release too much fluid, so they'll basically boil dry and then burn!

A picture of how the onions should look would be here, except that I'm an idiot and forgot to take one. Hopefully you can get this part sorted without my help.

Once all the onions are caramelized, add the brandy (NOT from the bottle, lest it catch on fire and explode in your hand!), then scrape up any brown bits still stuck to the bottom of the pan while the alcohol cooks off. Once the liquid has cooked down, add enough water to cover the onions to a depth of an inch or so along with the thyme, salt, and peppercorns. Bring it all up to a simmer and let it go for an hour or so.

Remove the sauce from the heat and strain the sauce from the solids, keeping both — the broth is what we need now, but the cooked onions and carrots will be tasty on the plate with the tuna steaks.

Simmer the sauce for twenty or thirty minutes until it reduces by about two-thirds and starts to thicken up enough to stick to your spoon a bit. Remove it from the heat, then stir the cream into the sauce. Put it back over low heat for a few minutes to thicken.

Serve.