Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tuna and Orzo Bento

Harris Teeter had yellowfin tuna steaks on sale for $4.99/lb the other day! I was going to buy salmon but decided last minute to get a pound of the tuna. I've never cooked fresh tuna before so it was interesting to experiment. I wanted an Asian marinade, something with soy sauce and sesame oil. As I started to pull out the ingredients, I noticed in my fridge an unopened bottle of Gyoza dipping sauce from Trader Joe's! It had most of the ingredients I wanted in my marinade so I saved lots of time and measuring by using that, with the addition of a squeeze of honey and a teaspoon more of sesame oil (love that stuff).

The steaks marinated for an hour before being pan-fried over high heat. In retrospect, the honey mixed with high heat was perhaps a bad idea as the tuna got a bit too dark on the outside. They tasted pretty good though, especially topped with the remaining marinade (boiled to kill any germs) then paired with orzo and fresh corn on the cob. One pound of tuna was definitely too much food for me and my boyfriend so I put the remainder into a really cute bento!


Top: orzo with garlic, onion, and zucchini, topped with toasted slivered almonds
Bottom: Sliced fresh tuna, skewered cornichons, adorable mini sweet pepper, bottle of gyoza dipping sauce for tuna




I've been experimenting with the settings on my point-and-shoot digicam (Canon SD1000) to find the best combination for indoor food pictures using the flash. These didn't come out too bad. I lowered the exposure setting, set the color scheme on "vivid" to bring out the colors of the food, and used the macro lens. Still not the greatest though. I'll have to experiment some more...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi E! I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to get over hear and comment on your photos. Please forgive me.

I think the new shots look great, especially that second one. The steps you've taken have definitely paid off.

Since you asked for a bit feedback on my site, I thought I'd give some. Remember, I'm not expert. These are just more options to try out.

First, I really only have 2 things to say about the photographs. The first looks a little yellow. I'm not sure if that's because of the yellow towel or if there really is a color cast.

Second, the second picture is great. I think the settings you used are great. I just think that the back end of the picture is a bit dark.

So, here's some things to think about. I found your camera on the Canon website with its specifications.

Okay, first your camera has a Camera M mode. I think that might be your manual mode. I'd switch the dial to that.

Then I'd set my aperture (look up in your manual how to do this) to a low number. This allows the most light into the camera to hit the sensor. Another thing to look up to set: shutter speed. You should have control over that too. Set it to 1/125 or above. Last thing to set: ISO. Set it to either 100 or 200.

Press whatever button you need to that has the flower (macro mode). You should be able to set your camera to macro mode outside of the automatic macro camera setting.

Take a picture. If it looks pretty good, then keep the settings. If not, forget everything I said. LOL! Seriously though, play around with those settings. You'll find what hits best. Here's a few last tips.

Aperture - controls how much light is let in through your camera's lens. Wide aperture (lower number) causes more light, but less of the object in focus. You might need to play with it a little.

Shutter speed - how long the camera allows the light to hit the sensor to make the picture.

ISO - how much of light that hits the sensor that the sensor actually captures. Lower the ISO the clearer the picture. Higher the ISO the grainier it is but the better picture you can capture in low light.

Okay, I hope this wasn't too long of a post. Please share more pics with me! I love this whole photography thing!