Visit to Henley and seared tuna steaks with lemon, garlic and oregano butter

What a lovely sunny weekend finally! On Saturday I couldn't wait for husband to wake up so we could go out and play. But I restrained myself, because he has to get up early during the week and he really needs those extra hours of sleep. Momentarily I was hopeful that upstairs neighbour's building project would do the job, but nothing. Husband slept like a cute, bald, bearded baby until midday after which I shoved a quick omelette down him and off we headed to Henley-on-Thames.

Like all pretty little towns Henley can only be reached through one narrow ancient bridge which is of course completely blocked with traffic. To make sure these single entry points to towns worth visiting are absolutely blocked there always is also a set of random unnecessary traffic lights with the single purpose of pissing off the tourists. Maybe it's the same as with nightclubs, there needs to be a queue otherwise people might think that it's not popular / worth visiting. Growing up in Finland I remember the extreme fun of queuing in minus 40 C only to enter a virtually empty nightclub.

There is always lack of parking too, which just makes it so much more worth while when you finally get out of the car and shake off the sciatica to enjoy the hour and a half left before the sun sets. So when we finally got there after husband had repeatedly refused to abandon the car on the roadside and walk, the sun had disappeared behind the clouds and the shops were closing.

Well they were not closing exactly, but shops do close really early in these picturesque little towns, so don't leave buying your colourful secondhand plates for blog photography purposes too late, otherwise you might be going home without any new plates and continue photographing the same bloody white IKEA plate.

The blimmin' bridge

We still had a really nice stroll on the riverside, with husband teaching me how to walk calmly and in a leisurely manner rather than rush forward pushing other people out of the way and into the river. Really. I've never pushed anyone into the river. Even though he's practically asked for it on several occasions. He then helpfully demonstrated how I walk. I always thought athletically and with strength and poise - but apparently like a madman. Completely cracked me up.

So we had a fun time admiring the pretty town and finished our visit with a drink in a riverside pub before heading back home for our favourite things: evening football TV for husband and dinner cooking for me.

I had seen a recipe for tuna steaks with a herby lemon butter somewhere recently, but I couldn't find the exact one anywhere. But I found some others and just chucked in what I thought might work. And it turned out really nice. I still like my orange and soy marinated tuna steaks, but this is another quick way to do fresh tuna.

I served it with a roasted asparagus pasta and a mixed salad.

Tuna on an IKEA plate

Seared tuna steaks with oregano lemon butter (Serves 4)

4 fresh tuna steaks
salt
pepper
oil

Lemon butter:
60g butter
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
zest and juice of a small lemon
salt
pepper

Sprinkle the tuna steaks with salt and pepper and drizzle lightly with oil.

Heat a griddle pan to medium high heat. Add the tuna steaks on the pan and fry for 2-3 minutes per side.

In the meanwhile prepare the butter sauce. Mince the fresh oregano and the garlic clove. Heat a small pan  and melt the butter in the pan. Add the garlic, oregano, zest and juice of a lemon, salt and pepper, Cook gently for a couple of minutes until the garlic is soft.

By this time your tuna should be done. Pour the lemony garlic and oregano butter over the tuna steaks and serve with pasta or rice and a fresh salad.