Tuna stir fry with exotic mushrooms

We don't always eat fish on Fridays. Whenever I cook fish, my dear husband mumbles "Why do we eat fish so often?" The younger men in my family are as obstinate: Sash would only eat fish pate as in tuna pate sandwiches, Eddie is always looking forward to fish and chips meals at school on Fridays, but apparently I serve the "wrong" kind of fish. Sometimes, I wonder: why do I even bother?
I buy tuna steaks maybe once or twice a month, especially when they are on offer. They are delicious with mushrooms.

Tuna stir fry with exotic mushrooms
Ingredients:
2 Yellowfish tuna steaks
2tbsp black garlic ketchup
2tbsp dark soy sauce
smoked sea salt
1tsp cyder vinegar
5tbsp sesame oil
1 carrot
1tbsp chilli-flavoured oil
200g mixed exotic mushrooms (oyster, shiitake, maitake)
whole wheat noodles

First slice each steak into 3-4 strips. Marinade tuna for at least an hour in a mix of dark soy sauce, black garlic ketchup, smoked sea salt, cyder vinegar and 2tbsp sesame oil. You can substitute black garlic ketchup for a finely chopped clove of garlic.
Peel and slice a carrot. Heat up 1tbsp of sesame oil and fry carrot for about 4-5 minutes, add the tuna and more oil. Cook the fish for about 2 minutes on each side. Add mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Serve with hot whole wheat noodles.

In this recipe I used Maldon smoked sea salt. I'm very fond of Maldon sea salt, and regularly buy the original variety. I also often make my own flavoured sea salt, by mixing it with all kinds of dried herbs.
Smoked sea salt flakes are gently smoked over oak to add a rich, sophisticated flavour to any dish.
It was part of the latest Degustabox food box, and I was most excited about trying it.
It's an excellent product, which adds a unique smokiness to cooked meals.

Awaken my TASTEbuds (review)

Having read a review of the Coriander & Rose Petal salt from www.tastespice.co.uk on Madhouse Family Reviews Blog, I was intrigued and eager to give it a try.
Before I continue, I would like to mention that if you enjoy reading reviews, then I cannot recommend Madhouse Family Reviews highly enough.

I love flavoured salts, and haven't seen any with the rose petals before.
Off I went browsing on the Taste Gourmet Spice Company website. And I couldn't stop at buying just the salt I was looking for. Too many temptations. So I decided to limit myself to buying three new products. My online basket was filled with the coriander and rose petal salt, saffron and orange oil and vanilla sugar.

Vanilla sugar is not a rare product, you can get it from the most major supermarkets, but it was on offer, so I couldn't resist. It is also quite easy to make your own if you ever fancy doing a batch, it keeps well. I remember young Jamie Oliver enthusing about the pleasures of whizzing your own batch of vanilla sugar. How does Taste vanilla sugar compare to let's say Waitrose vanilla sugar? It is less grainy and is finer in texture, has a very strong perfumey vanilla scent.
I used it for making sweet blini and bigger size pancakes.

Here the vanilla sugar was added to the batter and also sprinkled on the chopped banana (which in the photo below is hidden under the cream, just the way my husband likes it).

Blini were sweet enough to enjoy without any added toppings like honey or maple syrup.
Vanilla sugar is lovely in fruit salads. Or just grab a juicy strawberry and dip it in the aromatic vanilla sugar, what a feast!

I absolutely loved the Coriander & Rose petal sea salt. By now I tried it in a variety of dishes, and it works beautifully with many ingredients. Simple roast potatoes get transformed by this salt into something from the Arabian Nights.
My first dish was the pan-fried duck fillet, which was generously sprinkled with the salt. The rose petals made the duck more aromatic, but it wasn't overpowering. If anything, I would have liked a slightly higher ratio of the rose petals to the coriander. The duck was very tasty. I served it with the Tenderstem broccoli, which was steamed and mixed with the Saffron and orange oil.

That's another dish where I used the Saffron and orange oil (on a different occasion): roast butternut squash and sweet potatoes. And this oil is just meant for adding to the roast baby carrots.

I often pick rose petals from the garden and dry them to add to the black tea, but this year I am going to do my own version of the Coriander and rose petal sea salt.