Thon en Cocotte

Aaah la cocotte-minute! a cooking utensil, no French home would do without. I got mine when I was 17 and was getting ready to leave my parents' home. 

If you have spent some time in France, you will have noticed the strange noises emanating from flats and houses around midday, a soft, pffffffff pfffffff followed by a plume of steam on balconies that is a sure sign that somebody is using their cocotte (pressure cooker).

With each pressure cooker comes a book of "300 recettes", including traditional dishes. Many of which are "en matelote": cooked in red wine. My well battered book is old enough to contain offal recipes and a few exotic dishes such as Pork Curry.

The introduction alone is worth its pinch of salt, "Now days, the good-housewives are trying to reconcile the stresses of modern life with the traditional cooking".

I really love tuna, when I was little and lived in the south of France, my dad would take me to the fish market, we would come back home with tuna steaks for us and white fish for my mum. Then the ritual of cooking with the cocotte would start. 

So no wonder that on the rare occasions, I can source tuna in London, I pick up my battered book, my cocotte and as a result served very moist, no fuss tuna-steaks on a bed of steamed vegetables.

Thon en Cocotte

You will need:

Ingredients for 4 people

4 Tuna steaks

50 g of butter or oil

1 onion

2 gloves of garlic

Thyme and bay

1 slice of bacon per steak

1 glass of white wine (250ml)

1/2 mug of bread crumbs

salt and pepper

Method:

Make a marinade with 1 glass of oil and herbs (thyme and bay). Place the tuna steak in the marinade for a least 2h, best overnight

When you are ready to cook, wrap the bacon around the tuna.

Pan-fry in the pressure cooker with oil or butter, add the garlic and onion, cook for a couple of minutes,

Add the wine, close the cooker and let the dish cook for 30 minutes

Serve with steamed vegetables.