Ras-el Hanout Rubbed Tuna with White Bean Salad and Quinoa
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 Albacore tuna loin, approx. 20 oz
3 tbsp Ras El Hanout
3 cups white navy beans soaked in cold water overnight
1 cup quinoa
1 cup tahini
Garlic clove
100ml lemon juice
50ml water
100ml olive oil
Cilantro sprigs and lemon wedges for garnish
Sea salt
For Ras El Hanout:
1 cup cumin seeds
1 cup coriander seeds
1/2 cup fennel seeds
3 tbsp turmeric
1/2 tbsp cinnamon
Pinch of saffron (optional)
Method
- In a preheated oven, toast cumin, coriander and fennel seeds.
- Grind in a spice grinder to the coarseness level of liking.
- Mix in turmeric, cinnamon and saffron while toasted seeds are warm.
- Cook the beans in liberally salted water until soft to the bite. Drain and keep warm.
- Cook the quinoa as per the package directions. Keep warm.
- In a food processor, combine tahini, garlic, lemon juice and water.
- Slowly add the olive oil while the machine is running. *note – this sauce will split if olive oil is added too fast.
- Portion your tuna to 4oz pieces and liberally sprinkle with spice mix and sea salt.
- In a hot pan, sear for 1 minute on each side, or until the center of the tuna reaches 120F.
- Slice with a sharp knife.
- To serve, make a bed of beans on a plate, then sprinkle quinoa on top. Place tuna slices and garnish with cilantro and lemon.
Chef de Cuisine Deniz Tarakcioglu is both an old hand and familiar face when it comes to the Café Medina kitchen.
Deniz served two separate stints at the original Café Medina on Beatty Street, both as a first cook in 2009 and then a sous chef in 2012, before rejoining the fold as chef de cuisine at the restaurant’s new home at 780 Richards Street in 2015.
Born and raised in Northern Turkey, Deniz grew up in the warm embrace of a family of cooks and spent most of his childhood in the kitchen and around the table, where he quickly learned to appreciate and master the same hearty, rustic and Mediterranean- inspired cuisine that Café Medina has become famous for, as well as the subtle art of simplicity — both in life and on the line.
ABOUT Café Medina
Since opening in 2008, Café Medina has carved out a niche as a truly exceptional breakfast, lunch and weekend brunch destination that effortlessly blends eclectic bistro fare, connoisseur-savvy coffee and sweet nourishment via the city’s best Belgian waffles.
PROFILE
While the name ‘Medina’ has many interpretations, it was selected for its connotation of “radiant or enlightened city”. Indeed, this unique café quickly shone as one of the city’s most stylish additions, thanks to owner Robbie Kane’s pioneering attitude towards café culture and distinctive brand of enlightened hospitality — an ideal complement for the restaurant’s instantly memorable, Mediterranean-inspired cuisine by beloved Chef Deniz Tarakcioglu.
As Kane explains it, Café Medina doesn’t simply serve food — he and his staff pride themselves on feeding the soul of each and every guest and providing them with sustenance in every way, shape and form. This signature Medina mystique is the reason it has become a Vancouver institution, and why guests keep returning again and again.
After six years in its original location in Crosstown, Kane moved Café Medina to
a bright and spacious new home at 780 Richards Street in Vancouver. And while the new location boasts a number of upgrades, Kane has also gone to great lengths to preserve the same quaint touches, fine details and old-world charm that made the café a beloved staple of the local restaurant scene in its former site.
Café Medina’s new quarters not only allow for increased seating capacity, an expanded bar, open kitchen and high ceilings, but also provide the opportunity to expand the menu to soon offer dinner service, as well as an evening venue for private functions and special events.
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