I was scrounging around looking for something for lunch recently. I found a couple of cans of tuna in the pantry and decided to whip up some tuna salad. I had boiled a couple of extra eggs that morning which was handy, since my recipe uses chopped boiled eggs.
This is how I like to make it:
You’ll need 2 cans of good quality tuna — solid albacore is my choice (in oil if I’m splurging). Open the cans, drain them thoroughly.
Dump the tuna into a nice sized bowl.
Break up the tuna with a fork.
Splash a little lemon juice on the tuna (about 1 t. or more if you like a lot of lemon).
Add a couple dashes of salt if you aren’t watching salt intake.
Dice a couple of stalks of celery and a small amount of onion (about 1/4 of a smallish onion or less).
Add the celery and onion to the tuna.
Add 2 T. (or more) of sweet pickle relish including some extra juice and a squirt of yellow mustard (French’s).
I like to add about 1/2 t. of dill, but you can leave that out if you don’t like dill.
Peel the eggs and using an egg slicer, cut the egg three ways. The eggs go in the bowl, too.
At this point, add several dollops of Hellmann’s Mayo. How much depends on how saucy you like your tuna.
I like mine fairly dry, but moist enough to hang together.
My mom usually adds a small sprinkle of sugar (about 1/2 t.) but I don’t always do that.
Other add ins I like but don’t always add are: chopped green pimento stuffed olives or chopped pecans.
A little chopped fresh parsley would be good, too.
image via Flickr CC by cookbookman17; Fresh Parsley — A bunch of freshly picked parsley.
Stir it all together and let it cool in the fridge if you have time. If not, just pile it on the best whole wheat bread you can find and top it off with some fresh lettuce. I like mine cut diagonally.
Summary of ingredients needed:
2 cans of solid albacore tuna (in oil or water)
2 stalks of celery
a small onion
3 hard-boiled eggs
sweet pickle relish
dried dill from Penzeys (or fresh if you have it)
yellow mustard (French’s)
Hellmann’s mayo
salt, sugar
optionals: green olives, parsley
If you are making just 1 can of tuna, just use less of all the other ingredients. I would use one boiled egg for one can. If you don’t have time for making a boiled egg, you can leave the eggs out all together. I just like them in there, though.
I found this photo on Flickr (Creative Commons). It has cilantro and dijon in it. Sounds good! Maybe I’ll try it that way next time. You can find the recipe for this version here.
Dijon-Cilantro Tuna Salad on Whole Grain Bread Read about it at thebittenword.typepad.com/thebittenword
I have tried a few times to make salsa without a recipe. “How hard can it be?” I asked myself. I have eaten many baskets of chips at Mexican restaurants with many little bottles and bowls of various kinds of salsa — so I thought of myself as somewhat of an expert. Surely, I could just whip some up.
Well, it didn’t work out so well. Mine came out runny and tasteless. I had garden fresh tomatoes and cilantro and onion, clearly the essentials — but somehow the texture and the taste was all wrong.
image via Flickr CC Jordanmit09
I looked about for an actual recipe. I have two of the Pioneer Woman cookbooks now. I have been very happy with her recipes, both in the books and online. I tried watching her show, but it just isn’t my style. I like her writing and her recipes, though, very much. I think her photography is pretty spectacular, too. The cookbooks are beautiful to look at and to read. Every recipe I’ve tried of hers has been very good.
You can read about the most recent Pioneer Woman Cookbook: (read about it in her blog post here)
There is a point to all this. Back to the salsa issue. In the newest cookbook, Ree has a delicious looking salsa recipe in the Cinco de Mayo section that I just had to try. Even in Wisconsin in the middle of winter, I could get all the ingredients quite easily. I whipped it up in a very short time in my food processor. The best part is: it tastes delicious!!
Since this cookbook is pretty brand new fresh off the presses, I could not find the new salsa recipe posted anywhere online. I don’t want to get into copyright trouble with PW, so I am going to post the salsa recipe she already HAS on her website and suggest revisions so that you can come close to (okay exactly!) replicating the newer recipe. If that doesn’t make sense, just skip it and go on to the yummy food part.
image by Charles Williams via Flickr CC
Here is the Restaurant Style Salsa recipe from the Pioneer Woman website:
1 can (28 Ounce) Whole Tomatoes With Juice (or two 14 oz. cans)
1 can (10 Ounce) Ro-tel (diced Tomatoes And Green Chilies)
1/4 cup Chopped Onion
1 clove Garlic, Minced
1 whole Jalapeno, Quartered And Sliced Thin
1/4 teaspoon Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1/2 cup Cilantro (more To Taste!)
1/2 whole Lime Juice
For the complete recipe and directions, please refer to PW’s website.
To update this version, make these adjustments:
Use two cans of petite diced tomatoes instead of the large can of whole tomatoes. I drained my cans of tomatoes.
Use a whole onion instead of 1/4 c. Cut it into chunks before putting it in the food processor.
Add 1 or 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. These come in little cans in the Hispanic food aisle in grocery stores. I added one and a half.
Add 1 teaspoon of cumin instead of the lesser amount.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt instead of the lesser amount.
Add 1 teaspoon sugar instead of the lesser amount.
Use a whole bunch of cilantro (tear off the stems).
Use 1/4 c. lime juice (or more to taste).
That is it. You can make either version or a combo of both. I think you could experiment with using two cans of Ro-tel and one can of petite diced. You could add garlic. You could use green onions instead of the white. You could use red onion. Be sure to drain the cans of tomatoes, but don’t drain the Ro-tel.
This is what my salsa looked like! YUMMMMMM.
My salsa! Made following PW’s Chipotle Salsa recipe in her new cookbook. Image by The Tromp Queen.
I was so desperate to try this salsa that I had to make my own tortilla chips. I had bought the ingredients for the salsa, but forgot to get tortilla chips! Since Wisconsin seems to be in an eternal Polar Vortex lately, I didn’t want to go back to the store for just one item. I did, however, have some extra corn and flour tortillas in the fridge. So I heated up a stainless steel pan with about 1/2 to 1 inch of oil (canola, veg, peanut whatever you have), cut the tortillas in half and then each half into wedges, and quickly fried them til brown on both sides (you have to flip them over with metal tongs or a fork — don’t use plastic!). Drain on paper towels and salt with kosher or regular salt. De nada!
While we are on the chips and salsa topic, Pioneer Woman’s Pico de Gallo is absolutely delicious!! I highly recommend it. Basically her recipe is equal parts of chopped tomato, onion and cilantro. Add a couple of jalapeno peppers (or just one, de-veined and de-seeded), lime juice, and salt and pepper to taste. It is so good! I love this on fajitas, tacos or just with chips. If you make guacamole (the recipe is in that same link) you can mix the Pico de Gallo and guac together, too. Yes. Now we all need a margarita.
Overall Recipe REVIEW:
The recipe is quick, easy and delicious. The ingredients are easy to obtain: there is nothing fancy here. I really enjoy the balance of flavors. This tastes as good or better than most of the restaurant salsas out there. This recipe would be easy to adapt for personal tastes, though — more or less spicy, more or less lime juice, etc. I highly recommend all the recipes in this blog post!
5 out of 5 forks!!
Enjoy!
Please let me know you how your recipes turn out if you try any in this post. I’d love to hear your results.
The Tromp Queen COOKS! 