I just got my food chopper from The Pampered Chef. Actually I felt sort of foolish using it to make a couple of tuna salad sandwiches. After all, how hard is it to chop a quarter of an onion and a bit of fennel root and mush up some tuna. But it was calling to me. I’ve had it for 3 days and hadn’t used it yet. There it was sitting on top of my fridge, staring at me every time I went to do anything in the kitchen. So I drained my can of solid white tuna and chopped that. It was fabulous – not to mushy and done in 5 seconds. Same with the red onion and the fennel root. I never could have gotten it so evenly chopped by hand (most of the pieces would have been much bigger than I really wanted) and certainly not in my mini- electric processor (it would have been mush. So maybe it wasn't such a silly idea after all.
One wonderful thing about being a food blogger (there are too many to mention) is the opportunity to find interesting combinations of ingredients used in intriguing ways. I had some tapenade left over from the Swordfish recipe I tried after visiting Stephen Cooks. It added a delectable dimension to the sandwich. So while normally I wouldn’t make a big deal about making a simple tuna salad sandwich, this one was worth mentioning.
Tuna Salad Sandwich
Makes filling for 2-3 sandwiches
Ingredients:
1 tin (170 g/ 6 oz) solid white tuna
2 tbsp tapenade (see note)
¼ cup fennel root, chopped medium–fine
¼ cup red onion, chopped medium- fine
1 tsp powdered mustard
Mayonnaise to your taste (I like mine moist, my honey likes his drier)
Greens
Directions:
1. In a large bowl, mash tuna and add everything except the greens. Taste for seasoning and add salt, pepper, tapenade, mayo as required.
2. Toast (or not) crusty buns and spread some mayo (or not). Add a small handful of greens and then top with the tuna salad.
3. Eat!!!
Tapenade adapted from Stephen Cooks
Ingredients
2 cloves of garlic
4 tbsp panko bread crumbs
1 ½ tbsp capers, rinsed well
6 oil-cured black olives, pitted and chopped
3 tbsp fresh oregano and basil, chopped
White wine vinegar to taste ( start with 1 tsp)
Directions
1. In a mortar (or drop through the feeding tube in your food processor) mash the garlic, panko, herbs and a little olive oil to a paste. Add the vinegar, mix well and taste.
2. Stir in capers and olives.
It keeps great in a tightly sealed container for at least a week.
1 comment:
I love my little chopper from Zyliss. In fact, I like everything they make. And yes, it feels silly to use one when we could just use the knife, again, but the speed of it just urges me to cook more and more.
(I haven't been able to read in a couple of days, because I started school meetings. You've been busy!)
Post a Comment