Almost a year ago now I attended the opening party for the restaurant Joey Don Mills here in Toronto. While I was there I saw their as of yet unfinished rooftop patio in addition to getting to sample lots of tasty food. Last week I had the opportunity to attend their long awaited rooftop patio opening party and I have to say, the patio looks great and the food was just as good as I remembered it. I got to sample a number of their dishes while I was there and the one that really caught my attention this time was one of their signature dishes, the ahi tuna tacos and I could not resist trying to recreate them at home.
The ahi tuna tacos are essentially bite sized tacos filled with a sesame and ginger coleslaw topped with a piece of perfectly seared ahi tuna served with a wasabi and lime aioli. The tacos shells are made from a crispy fried wontons and since I could not figure out how to fry them in the shape of a taco shell I ended up making tostadas rather than tacos. I was in luck for the the sesame and ginger coleslaw as I had recently made some and all I needed to do was tweak the recipe a bit to make a mayonnaise-less version. Next up was the wasabi and lime aioli and although aioli is pretty easy to make I was a little pressed for time so I made a really quick and easy version using mayonnaise as the based. With all of the ingredients present all that was left to do was to grill up the tuna and assemble everything. The key to the tuna is to sear it very briefly such that the middle is still nice and pink when you pull it off of the grill.
The ahi tuna tostadas turned out amazingly well! The fried wontons were nice and light and crispy and the sesame and ginger coleslaw was cool and tasty and brought a nice crunchy texture. The wasabi aioli had a mild wasabi flavour and just a hint of bite that did not threaten to overwhelm the delicate flavours of the tuna. With all of the Japanese flavours going on in these tostadas I could not help but try putting a Korean spin on things and I made half of them with a guchujang and lime aioli which was also really good. This dish may be a little decadent with the cost of tuna these days but it is definitely worth treating yourself every once in a while.
If you are interested you can take a look at some of the photos that I took at the party in my Joey Don Mills Patio Flickr Gallery .
Ahi Tuna Tostadas
ingredients
- oil for frying
- 16 wonton wrappers (or corn tortillas cut into triangles)
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 1 5 ounce ahi tuna steak
- salt and pepper or cajun/creole seasoning to taste
- 1 cup sesame and ginger coleslaw
- 3 tablespoons wasabi aioli (or gochujang aioli, see below)
- 2 green onions (sliced)
- 4 birds eye chilies (sliced)
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
directions
- Heat the oil in a pan.
- Fry the wontons in batches until crispy and set aside on paper towels to drain.
- Heat up the grill (or your grill pan) and brush it with oil.
- Season the tuna on both sides.
- Grill the tuna for no more than 2 minutes per side.
- Cut the ahi tuna into slices.
- Assemble the tostadas and enjoy.
Simple Wasabi and Lime Aioli
ingredients
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 teaspoon wasabi
- 1/2 lime (juice)
directions
- Mix everything.
Simple Gochujang and Lime Aioli
ingredients
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon gochujang
- 1/2 lime (juice)
directions
- Mix everything.
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you like cooking？
These look spectacular, Kevin. Fabulous job!
these sound so yummy!
Wow…Sounds fabulous and yum
Splendid!
Cheers,
Rosa
If all the food was this good at the opening then your stomach must have been seriously satisfied! These are such a great idea.
Hi, I'm from Romania, I appreciate talent in the culinary arts. You are a master! Have a nice day
I think you have recreated what you discovered at Joeys very well kevin.
I can almost imagine the texture of this!
Aaah Kevin these look absolutely yummy and tasty! gloria
Sounds delicious, I could go for some ahi tuna now!
Now I'm starving! Had to reblog this on CrushParty! YUMMMMM
Gorgeous tostadas. Nice use of wonton wrappers.
What a great way to play with Ahi Tuna. I can hear the crunch of the crisp tostada just by looking at the picture. I bet it pairs well with a margarita!
OMG! It looks sooooo yummy!
Awesome tostadas!!! I love ahi tuna, too. Bookmarking this!!
These sound amazing! I will be trying these very soon! Thanks for sharing!
I just licked the screen….
Okay, this sounds so good! My husband and I were just at a restaurant and had a similar appy which we LOVED and wanted to try to replicate… and here, sure enough, you do a post! Great, thanks!
xxMK
Delightful Bitefuls
I think if you fried the wonton wrappers around something cylantrical that would probably work.
Another great dish! Thank you!
these are making my mouth water!
What a fantastic dish…I could eat this at every meal:)
Just made these! Delish! Thanks 🙂
looks delicious, but are you comfortable cooking with tuna these days? Would you change anything if it was mahi-mahi?
Dan: Mahi-mahi would be another great fish to use and you should be able to substitute it in directly.
So excited to have found this recipe. I am pretty sure that Joey Don Mills must be part of the same chains as Joeys here in Winnipeg. Because I LOVE their sushi taco and they look exactly like this! So glad I found the recipe.
Quick question though… where does one fine Sushi Grade Ahi Tuna Steak? And do you have to use it right away or can you store it???
Thanks for your help!
Amanda
Amanda DB: I get my sushi quallity tuna from a local fish monger/store. If you don't see it there ask them about it. If you are going to be using the tuna for sushi or if you are just going to be barely searing it like in this recipe I would use it the day that I bought it. The sooner the better.
Hi! Its Amanda DB again.
So I might be too much of an amateur to be making this but Im going to try anyways because it looks so delicious!
Can you tell me how I would go about "searing" the tuna?
Thanks again!
Amanda DB: To sear the tuna, heat your pan to med-high and oil it up a bit. Place the tuna steak on and cook for no more than a minute or two on each side. You can watch the sides of the tuna steak and when you can see the side on the heat start turning white to a depth of just barely 1/8 inch it is done and you can flip it and cook the other side. You can cook it more if you prefer but the idea is that you want a much pink left as possible as cooked tuna can be a bit on the dry side and you want it to still be nice and moist and tender.
This is pretty interesting! I like to make some. I want to try what it tastes like.
These are close to the most wonderful thing I have put in my mouth. A bit time consuming but I am still thinking about these and I made them 2 days ago! So yummy!
Thank you for this (and your slaw) recipe, as I was addicted to Joey Tomatoes Ahi Tuna Tacos too and missed them when I moved far away from their locations. Your recipe was great and the only 'Joey' addition I added was to coat the tuna with a cajun spice before searing it. (That's what they do!) Perfection and finally able to indulge in my favourite treat! Thank you Thank you Thank you!
Anonymous: I like the sound of the cajun spice on the tuna!