MikeyOnFood

Tuna Salad - Secrets of the Masters

2009-02-10T08:55:00.001-08:00

MMmmm. Tuna Salad. You take some canned tuna, and mix it into something delicious. Then you roll it into a wrap, fold it in a lettuce leaf, pile it on toast or crackers. And yeah, do it right, its well worth the mercury you're soaking up. But get it wrong, its sketchy, skanky and smelly. Your kids would be within their rights to throw it at you.

It sometimes seems to me that the Tuna you get in a can and that sublime, rich Ahi you find in Sushi or Poke can't be the same thing. They have virtually no similarities. That said, it isn't practical to try and make a Tuna salad out of a $25.00 hunk of Ahi, so the answer is to use the canned and figure out how to make a delicious Tuna Salad.

I have become aware of two secrets of the Masters of the Tuna Salad Universe, and I'm going to share them both here. As I become aware of further secret information, you can count on my continued utter lack of discretion.

First, Tuna packed in oil is slimy and sketchy in every detail. I've never found a comfort zone with it. Tuna packed in water is much better for texture, and has a better, more consistent taste (what DO they use for "oil"? 30 weight?). So here's secret number one. Buy the Tuna packed in water, drain it good, and hit it with a drizzle of the GOOD Olive Oil. Let it soak for a couple minutes (maybe while you boil an egg?) and then go ahead and make your Tuna Salad. You'll find a lot of freshness and, well, tuna-ness has returned to your tuna.

Now, we all have our favorite tuna salad recipes, and that's as it should be. I like diced scallions, celery, carrots, garlic, whole grain mustard and enough mayonnaise to bring it together. Now, here's the secret. Use about a tablespoon of your favorite bottled cole slaw dressing. It brings the right sweetness and tang, and a unidentifiable something that you won't want to live without. Finally, salt, pepper, cayenne and a blend of dried Italian herbs. At the end gently stir in some diced hard-boiled egg and it's ready to go...

Healthy Lunch I

2009-01-22T10:50:00.000-08:00

I got this one from Web MD, of all places. Made it yesterday.

It's a cup of canned Refried Beans, heated in the microwave with a good shot of hot sauce. When hot, spread them in the center of a big whole wheat flour tortilla, hit it with a teaspoon of diced chilies, a whole bunch of pico de gallo and some shredded Mexican cheese. Fold in the ends, roll it up like a bean burrito, serve it with a handful of tortilla chips and a hard boiled egg.

Damn, this was good. This healthy lunch thing is working out better than I might have hoped. And considering my typical lunch was about fifteen bucks, I can go pretty seriously overboard on this (premade Pico, deli cold cuts, fresh tuna) and still be saving big money.

Apparently, Sam and Ella do NOT Recommend Peanut Butter.

2009-01-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

One of the things I meant to put into inventory when I went to the store today, as part of my new healthier lunch regime, was going to be a jar of peanut butter. Somehow, I managed to forget to add it to my shopping cart. So imagine my satisfaction when I got home and saw the headline from our friends at the Associated Press:

"People urged to avoid peanut butter products".

Ok. Guess I did ok then, eh?

Sadly, no. I may very well need a lesson in remedial government-speak. Notice the phraseology. Peanut Butter Products. If that sounds a little like "Weapons of Mass Destruction Program Related Activities", you're way ahead of me. Here's the meat of the article:

WASHINGTON – People should avoid eating cookies, ice cream and similar products that contain peanut butter until the government knows more about possible salmonella contamination. But there is no indication that major brands of peanut butter sold in stores are a problem.

Oh. That's reassuring. Y'know, I think I'll just kind of sit tight with the Cashew Butter I have in the fridge and see where this all goes. 'Cause here's the thing. I have this stupid bulletproof constitution, and pretty much nothing makes me sick, but it seems like spending the next five days on the toilet might well interfere with my plans for the week.

Reckon I can buy some peanut butter just as easily next week...

One IS the Lonliest Number

2009-01-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

It has been well-documented over the years how difficult, and ultimately wasteful, shopping and cooking for one can be. Well, as someone who has lived alone for a very long time, I can say that a lot of those problems can now be relatively easily solved, but there is another, more insidious problem on the rise.

First, the good news. Most grocery stores now include a butcher, bakery and deli within the actual confines of the store. The result of this is that it's no longer ever necessary to purchase the prepackaged quantities and sizes of the most expensive, and perishable products. Appropriate amounts of breads, cheeses, cold cuts and products like olives and mushrooms can easily be acquired. Meat can be cut into individual serving sizes and frozen. While there are still products in cans and jars that are not available in single-serving sizes, many of these items are less perishable and can be kept in the refrigerator long enough to get a second, or even a third use out of them.

The larger problem is when you want to make a dish that comes in a package or a pouch. The ingredients tend to be measured and the instructions written for four servings. Typically 1 pound of protein, for example. If I want to make that dish for one, using a ¼ pound of, say, chicken or pork, I've got way too much of everything else. In the case of a pouch based stir-fry sauce I like, I just go ahead and make the whole thing so the ratios stay correct, but I end up only using about a third of it and throwing the rest away. At $1.89, not the end of the world, but a possible source of error, and a wasteful one at that.

Another example is a Pad Thai "kit" I like. It's just noodles and a pre-made Pad Thai sauce that's quite good. The noodles don't represent a major problem, I just use about half of them and seal the other half in a zip top bag for a little home made Ramen later. But the sauce. There's no real sense of how much to use, and both too much and too little result in disappointment. It would be nice if the manufacturers of these types of foodstuffs included instructions for a half - batch.

I know, none of this is a major crisis, but a little recognition that not everyone is a family of four, along with more choice in package size would be beneficial to all...

Sleeping With the Fishes II - Petrale Ollie Outs in Free

2009-01-15T20:45:00.000-08:00

So my dear friend Len, the eternal optimist, had this to say about the whole Tillapia nightmare:

Next time you can't find tilapia try petrale, its easy to prepare and can be pan fried or baked. Baked some just the other night seasoned with S&P, Pam the bottom of a baking dish, little float of white wine and a sprinkle of dry sherry. Baked in a 325 oven for 20 mind. Served with a side of broccoli and brown rice. YUM!!!

Another reason to kick yourself for not having any Sherry in the cupboard...

Epiphany!

2009-01-15T16:01:00.000-08:00

I tend to be fairly careful with the food I cook. Keep the Sodium down, limit the fat and balance the protein, carbs and vegetables in a healthy manner. I like whole grains and things that are high in fiber, so it's usually not particularly difficult for me.

But I never really thought about lunch. I don't know, maybe I was stuck in the belief that if you didn't cook it it didn't count or something. So I'd get a sandwich at Quiznos or Eriks, or a Cobb Salad at Chilis, or a Pannini at Dave and Busters. Never think a thing about it.

Sure, sometimes I'd never actually get hungry enough to make dinner, especially if I ate a late lunch, and despite my otherwise healthy eating habits I never seemed to lose any weight no matter what. Well, today, for no good reason I started looking at the nutritional information for my lunch mainstays on the web. I was shocked. It seems it's routine for the food I eat at lunch to run 1500-2200 calories and even more shocking, consistently over 2000 mg of sodium!

My lunch is trying to kill me.

So that's it, then. I mean, sure, there'll still be lunches out with the gang, and with customers when necessary, but for the rest of the time I'm going to change my ways. I'll be going home and putting together something healthier, tofu and beans and peanut butter and salads and things. The key, I suspect, will be to find things that are good enough to eat and filling enough that I'm not starving all the time, because that would make me cranky.

And hey. Life's too short for that shit...

Sleeping with the Fishes

2009-01-15T14:32:00.000-08:00

So I went to the store last night to get a Tillapia fillet. They didn't have any, so I thought "what the heck" and I went with the Dover Sole. What a disappointment. I used my regular seasoning of flour, corn meal, Old Bay, salt, pepper and garlic, gave it a good shake and put it on the stove in a little olive oil over medium heat. But the Sole was much more fragile than the Tillapia, and it broke when I turned it over. After a minute on the other side to brown, I put it in a 300° oven for a couple minutes to finish and it stuck to the pan. There was, of course, no good way to get it on the plate intact.

It actually tasted ok, but on the plate it looked like a botched surgical proceedure. I served it with steamed vegetables over rice, and drizzled the whole thing with Bernaise sauce.

I'm pretty sure the moral of this story is if you're not sure what you're buying, DON'T GUESS!