Ahi Tuna Tower

I have been going through a phase, frequently taking lunch to run over to Edohana Sushi to pick up a tuna tower to go, or finding any excuse to "happy hour" at Naan to indulge. This week, I decided - how hard could it be to make one? But importantly, just how "good" or "bad" are these little towers? I felt compelled to take that challenge, recreate at home and calculate the nutritional facts just to see.

Looking at the ingredients, you've got your Sashimi-grade tuna, crab meat, avocado, and sushi rice. I have a plethora of Sriracha, mayonaise, tamari but I decided I wanted eel sauce, I love eel sauce! Tuna towers are also typically topped with Masago, the little orange and black caviar beads that sit atop the tower, something I decided to do without to save some money.

I needed some kind of tube-like container to mold the tower into. I had this double-open-ended measuring device that my mom bought me at a Pampered Chef party recently. Thank you momma, I don't really use it for what it is intended for, but you helped me create the tuna tower with it. The crab and tuna was bought and measured out to my needs at Rex's Seafood, a fantastic Dallas fish market. That meant I only had to pay for what I was using, and the total was under $7! The rest of the ingredients were all things I had on hand, and the Sushi counter at Central Market gave us 2 tbsp. of eel sauce in a small container, and the sushi rice for free! Total time this took to make? A whopping 15 minutes.

Now, for the best part... one serving size is equal to half a tuna tower, meaning it's perfect to share. Click here for the awesome nutritional facts for this recipe calculated at SparkRecipes.com. For a weight watchers conversion, this is a total of 6 points per serving. 

Grocery List:

3 oz. Sashimi grade tuna

2/3 cup chopped crab meat

1/2 cup cooked sushi rice

1/2 tsp. sesame oil

1 tsp. Sriracha 

1 tbsp. fat-free mayonnaise  

1 tsp. Tamari (organic, low sodium soy sauce)

1 finely chopped avocado (used about 1/3 cup's worth)

Ponzu sauce

Eel Sauce 

To start, mix your mayo with the sriracha in a small bowl.

Make sure your sashimi tuna is chopped up nice and small! Add the sesame oil and the Tamari to give it some flavor.

Combine 1 spoonful of the mayo combo with the diced crab meat and mix together well to get completely coated. I added just a small shake of Ponzu sauce as well.

Drizzle the leftover mayo on the plate, along with some ponzu and eel sauce. That part for me was rather hasty and not so tactful, a less than mediocre presentation attempt... I used a fat-free olive oil spray to just "grease" the inside of the tube so that I could gently push the contents out with ease. With one end of the container on the plate, start with your rice and push it down, packing it in. Follow and top with the crab mix.

Next, take your avocado and add that layer over top the crab.

Finally, it's tuna time - add this layer over top your avocado, gently pushing down. 

Lift the tube about 1 inch from the plate and again, gently push on the top, sliding the contents out slowly to keep them from coming apart at each layer. As more slide out, lift the tube higher until it is all done and then ta-da - it's a tower!

After transporting from the kitchen to the table, it started to become a little wobbly. I used just a little bit of mayo in the crab to keep the fat and calories down. That means it didn't have enough to hold it together for a solid second-layer base. By the time I got to the table, it was a leaning tower of tuna but I guess that didn't really matter because it was time to smash it up! To eat, take two forks and begin to mash it all together. Drizzle with additional sauce of your choice and dig in. Even Mr. Max was wild about this one, it was a perfect portion for the two of us to share.

Tastefully yours,