Tuna Eyeball Juice
Video by Sam Wells, Chef Epic
This zero waste technique by Davin Waite from the Wrench and Rodent shows a unique way to use the tuna eyeball to make a sauce to dress nigiri.
Watch the step-by-step video here. Davin also shows how to cut sushi and how to make tuna nigiri.
Ingredients
1 tuna head / 2 eyes
salt & pepper
minced garlic
celery leaves
1 large ice cube
tin foil
charcoal
Eyeball on the foil during prep. Image by Sam Wells, Chef Epic.
How to Prepare
Extract the eyeballs from the tuna head. To do so, begin by cutting a half-moon around the back half of the eye. Make sure not to cut too close to the eye, as you don’t want to puncture the socket and lose the vitreous humor (see Note). Pull the half-moon of skin away, and use your fingers to get underneath the eye socket and pop it out without puncturing. Repeat for the other eye.
Create your foil pouch using two layers of tin foil. On the top piece of foil, place both eyeballs, salt and pepper to taste, minced garlic, one large ice cube, and celery leaves (or other herbs). The ice cube acts as a time-release steam for the eyeballs, without submerging it in water.
Prepare your smoker with 2 or 3 large handfuls of charcoal. Shoot for a temp of 180F (up to 230F is ok). Place your foil pouch on the smoker to steam slowly, about two hours.
Remove pouch from the smoker. Carefully open the pouch, and pour the contents through a strainer into a small bowl. Save the juice, compost the eye sockets & herbs!
Use the juice to flavor tuna nigiri made from the loin of the same fish. Using a spoon, drizzle the warm eyeball juice over each piece of nigiri, and serve immediately.
Note: Vitreous humor is basically salt water jelly, with a lot of fish flavor. You want to be careful seasoning it, because it kind of has its own seasoning already built into it.
- Chef Davin Waite