Rustic House Copycat Ahi Tuna Tartare - Recipe

A few weeks ago, my mom came to Chicago, and we dined at a restaurant in Lincoln Park called Rustic House. Our meal was great--duck l'orange, veal cheek ragout, and some incredible desserts. But one of the best parts of our meal was our appetizer: Ahi Tuna Tartare.


We were expecting something different--slices of raw tuna with a dipping sauce and some wasabi on the side. But what we got was an extremely pleasant surprise. More like a spread, this tuna tartare appetizer was unique, full of flavor, and delicious.

Raw fish not your thing? Honestly, this is the dish you should try if you want to like it. Some find the texture of raw fish to be off-putting. In this recipe, however, the texture is somewhat masked by all the other things going on in the spread like the raw onion and cucumber. Trust me, you'll be going back for a second (or third, fourth, or fifth) bite.

This recipe is our rendition of the Rustic House's tuna tartare, and it comes pretty close to the real thing! It's incredibly simple to make, but will certainly impress your guests at your next dinner party.

Rustic House Copycat Ahi Tuna Tartare

Note: We truly didn't measure in making this recipe, but this is one of the situations where you should add as much or as little of the ingredients as you like. Want more tuna? Then make it the star and cut it thicker. Want the avocado to to shine? Then add more. I'm giving approximations in this recipe for what we made (which made a fairly sizable appetizer that would serve about 10 with people coming back for more multiple times). It is so easy to make more or less if you need to!

Total Time: 10-15 minutes

Ingredients

• Sushi-grade yellowfin tuna
• English Cucumber
• Red Onion
• garlic (cloves)
• Lime (or lemon)
• Cilantro
• Jalapeño
• Avocado
• Pickled Ginger
• Olive Oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Procedure

Slice the tuna steak to your preferred thickness.

Finely chop red onion, garlic, cucumber, and jalapeño (we used about 1/2 of a small red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 jalapeño pepper, and a significant amount of cucumber--maybe 1/2-3/4 of a large cucumber. This is what gives the recipe its texture!)

Slice about 1/2 of an avocado (or more if you'd like) into chunks

Add pickled ginger (this is strong but adds acidity to the dish--don't add too much! You can always add more later)

Combine all of the ingredients with a little olive oil, lime juice and lime zest, roughly chopped cilantro, salt, and pepper to taste.

Feel free to add any ingredients to suit your tastes and enjoy!

Be sure to keep refrigerated before serving!