Food, Home & Lifestyle
Tostadas de Atún | Tuna Tostadas
Lesson time 16:27 min
Often imitated, tostadas de atún is one of Contramar’s most popular dishes. While showing you how to make it, Gabriela tells you how she developed the tuna tostada and its fusion of Mexican, Italian, and Japanese influences.
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Topics include: Making the Tostadas
Teaches Mexican Cooking
Celebrated chef Gabriela Cámara shares her approach to making Mexican food that brings people together: simple ingredients, exceptional care.
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[MUSIC PLAYING] - So 1998, the scene of restaurants in Mexico City was so different from what it is now. Japanese food was popular. Asian fusion was having a big moment. And at the beginning of Contramar, Contramar was not as popular as it now is. We had chunks of time to create dishes, and one of the cheapest fish we could find was tuna. Believe it or not, nobody in Mexico 20 years ago wanted to eat tuna. People wanted white fish. People wanted things that were reminiscent of snapper or of merluza. I don't know how you say merluza in English. And tuna was very-- tuna has always been along the coast of Mexico, in the Gulf, on the Pacific. It was so accessible that we thought, we need to do something with this fish. So we had a tuna fillet and we copied what many restaurants were doing abroad, which is sort of a raw center tuna fillet. You know, seared tuna in an Asian-ey sauce. And then we took it further in our fusion with Mexican food. Tacos, we had the fresh made tortillas on the in the restaurant. We would then fry the tortillas and have tostadas. So we have octopus tostada, shrimp tostada, and we came up with a tuna tostada. So the tuna tostada is now, I'm very proud to say, it is a dish that is on so many menus of Mexican food in Mexico and abroad. I want to think of the tuna tostada as sort of a parallel of the Caesar salad. Nobody knows where it's from. Everybody loves it, and it's just very widely spread and popular. Contramar was the first restaurant to serve the tuna tostada, I'm very proud to say. And the way we did it is putting together, you know, our different cooking traditions. So the Mexican tostada, the chipotle chili, which we mixed into a mayonnaise, a mayonnaise that we usually make at home. It's very easy to make it. I'll give you the recipe. And you should not be scared of making any mayonnaise, because it's just having a good blender. And we've seen from many recipes here that the trick is having a good blender. I am going to make a very spicy chipotle mayonnaise, and I'm literally going to put the puree chipotle and mix it with the mayonnaise that's already been made. I would prompt you to make your own mayonnaise because it really is very easy. However, if you want to buy mayonnaise, you can find so many great organic types of mayonnaise. And the chipotles are very easily found in different stores or online. You know, chipotles are dried and then rehydrated and cooked jalapeno chilis. So it's sort of like the third stage of a jalapeno chili. And they're usually smoked and they're preserved with a little bit of piloncillo. It's a simple recipe. You can also do that. But usually, even we use canned chipotles because it's very, very easy to find good ones. And this is a mayonnaise that is a little bit spicy, but not overly spicy. Chipotle is a very easy chili. The smokiness and the spice balance really well, and it's a widely appreciated chili. This is what we will spread on the tost...
About the Instructor
A “star of modern Mexican cuisine,” Gabriela Cámara brings her local, sustainable twist to time-honored traditions. Now the chef of Contramar shares the richness of her culture through the art of food. Learn step-by-step recipes—for dishes of her own design, like tuna tostadas, and staples like tacos al pastor, salsa, and tortillas—and delight loved ones with your own delicious renditions of Mexican favorites.
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Gabriela Cámara
Celebrated chef Gabriela Cámara shares her approach to making Mexican food that brings people together: simple ingredients, exceptional care.
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