The humble toaster oven - broiling tuna steaks

If you go to a restaurant, having fresh tuna is often expensive and looks like it takes some skill to prepare. At home, if you have a toaster oven, it's possible to make a delicious tuna steak without much effort. The tuna steaks at the supermarket are quite expensive so if possible, check out the store below the cheese/deli store at Haymarket on Friday or Saturday to see if they have any tuna available. They usually sell it for about $4/lb, which is significantly less than the supermarket price.

Here is a video of the whole process:

Even though my "secret sauce" is Frank's hot sauce, soy sauce, cumin, and black pepper, you can always use whatever type of sauce you like to marinate the tuna. The advantage of using the toaster oven instead of a frying pan is that you can set the timer and go away while it's cooking. You can also control the type of "crust" you want by varying the temperature of the toaster oven. I set it at 350 F and that resulted in a very soft crust. If you would like a firmer outside part, you need to turn the temperature up and reduce the cooking time.

I also put basil leaves under the steak to add some extra flavor. The leaves needed to be under the tuna because they would have burned on top of the steak. Another way to use herbs is to add them after you finish cooking.