TBK cooks Tuna- all week!

Jhoanna and I had a misunderstanding last week. I asked her to get me a can of Tuna like this:

However she got me one like the one at the top of the Blog

Once I open it the tuna will go off quickly so I decided to dig out all my Tuna recipes and make them in one week. I used my 2014 recipe book:

This is what we made:

1. Tuna Rice

              My old wok in my old kitchen in Awali, Bahrain 

Ingredients:

4 cups cold cooked rice

1 small can tuna

3-4 eggs

2 onions sliced

1- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 tablespoons cooked green peas or green pepper

2 tablespoons soy sauce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Remove the bones from the tuna and separate the meat. Beat the eggs. Cook the onions in the oil in the wok until transparent. Remove. Cook the rice in the wok, turning frequently. Add the salt and fry for 5 minutes and then mix in the onion. Make a well in the rice and add more oil and add the eggs. Stir eggs until almost scrambled and then mix together with the rice and continue frying for a few more minutes. Add the tuna, peas and soy sauce. Continue frying and mixing in all the ingredients. Correct the seasoning and serve.

                   My 2023 version in Palawan- still on the sparkling water!

2. Salad Nicoise

                              Getting ready to prepare my Salad Nicoise 

The recipe below is a shortened version - in her iconic cook book Julia Child devotes several pages to her Salad Nicoise recipe!   

                                 A gift from my brother Andrew

                             Here is one I made earlier in Bahrain , Circa 2013

Vinaigrette

 ½ cup lemon juices

¾   cup extra- virgin olive oil

1 medium shallot, minced

1 Tbsp. Minced fresh thyme leaves

2 Tbsps.  Minced fresh basil

2 Tsps. minced fresh oregano leaves

1 Tsp. Dijon mustard

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

 Salad mix

 2 Grilled or otherwise cooked tuna steaks (8 oz. each) or 2-3 cans of tuna (or in my case a big can of Tuna!)

6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and either halved or quartered

10 small new red potatoes (each about 2 inches in diameter, about 1 ¼ pounds total), each potato scrubbed and quartered

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 medium heads Boston lettuce or butter lettuce leaves, washed, dried, and torn into bite- sized 

3 small ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into eights

1 small red onion, sliced very thin

200g green beans stem ends trimmed and each bean halved crosswise

¼ cup Nicoise olives

2 Tbsps. Capers, rinsed and / or several anchovies (optional)

 Method:

 Marinade tuna steaks in a little olive oil for an hour. Heat a large skillet on medium high heat, or place on a hot grill. Cook the steaks 2 to 3 minutes on each side until cooked through.

 1.    Whisk lemon juice, oil, shallot, thyme, basil, oregano, and mustard in medium bowl; season to taste with salt and pepper and set aside.

2.    Bring potatoes and 4 quarts cold water to boil in a large pot. Add 1 Tbsp. salt and cook until potatoes are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. Transfer potatoes to a medium bowl with a slotted spoon (do not discard boiling water). Toss warm potatoes with ¼ cup vinaigrette; set aside.

3.    While potatoes are cooking, toss lettuce with ¼ cup vinaigrette in large bowl until coated. Arrange bed of lettuce on a serving platter .Cut tuna into ½ - inch thick slices, coat with vinaigrette. Mound tuna in centre of lettuce. Toss tomatoes, red onion, 3 Tbsps. vinaigrette, salt and pepper to taste in bowl; arrange tomato-onion mixture on the lettuce bed. Arrange reserved potatoes in a mound at edge of lettuce bed.

4.    Return water to boil; add 1 Tbsp salt and green beans. Cook until tender but crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain beans, transfer to reserved ice water, and let stand until just cool, about 3o seconds; dry beans well. Toss beans, 3 tbsps. Vinaigrette, and salt and pepper to taste; arrange in a mound at edge of lettuce bed.

5.    Arrange hard boiled eggs, olives, and anchovies (if using) in mounds on the lettuce bed. Drizzle eggs with 2 remaining dressing, sprinkle entire salad with capers (if using), and serve immediately.

Here is my latest version in Tuna week in Palawan:

                                                It was attractive and delicious!

 3. Fast Tuna Pasta bake

Add pasta bake pic

Total time: Ready in 15 minutes 

Makes:  4

Ingredients

300g Penne pasta
350g tub Cheese Sauce
195g can Sweet corn, drained
100g Frozen Peas, defrosted
2 x 200g cans Tuna Steak in Spring Water, drained
1 tbsp Tomato Purée
50g Medium Cheddar Cheese, grated

Method

1.    Cook the pasta in boiling water for 8 minutes, drain. Heat the cheese sauce in the same pan with the sweet corn, peas, tuna and tomato purée.

2.    Stir in the pasta, season and transfer to an ovenproof dish.

3.    Sprinkle with cheese and place under a grill for 3 minutes until golden.

 

We froze half and finally finished it in the Middle of April!

"Tell us a story about this dish Mr P"

" Well first I got this recipe in the UK , I think it was on a recipe card from a Supermarket chain you will know called Waitrose"

" Oh yes, very posh ( Maarte/ Sosyal in Tagalog- a bit like Allosra for those of you in Bahrain )."

"So on every line of the ingredients it had "Essential Waitrose" like it could be only made with Waitrose products! Haha ( or Charizz in Tagalog)"

" Wow , your Tagalog is coming on very well Mr P"

" Salamat Po G!"

" I went to buy a big bag of Penne at Puerto Deli and then when I got home I found I already had a jar full of Penne!"

" So we are having a Penne week next week!"

" Now there is a good idea Mr G- send me some Penne recipes!"

" I already gave you 17 recipes for your recipe book- how is it going by the way?"

" Great, thank you so much. We uploaded the 6 March recipes on 15 March and we had two TBK cooks vlogs of dishes we are featuring this month. So far we have had 223 views"

If you have not seen TBK 2023 Recipe book click the link below:

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/p/the-2023-recipe-book.html

4. Seared Tuna with Lemon Salsa

See last weeks blog :

https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2023/03/tbk-cooks-low-gi-food-for-friends.html

What else did we eat in Tuna week?

When I showed my foodie neighbour Benny my Tuna steaks that started the week he said he could not eat the same dish 4 days running as I had planned so I explained I would supplement it with other dishes

5. One night I had a lovely Steak from Puerto Deli- he tried to sell me a new steak just in for 1555 peso (£22) but I selected a Rib Eye for 500 pesos (£7) which I just coated in salt and ground pepper and some steak seasoning and fried and then ate on it's own- it was masarap.

6. On Monday I cooked a dish I call CALF which I found in my 2014 recipe book when looking for Tuna recipes. CALF stands for Chicken A La Frere which is Franglais for "My Brother's Chicken!". I got so many recipes from my brother Andrew over the years and this one is suitably vague with no portion sizes of oven temperature and timings, so I just guesses and it was very tasty!

                              My CALF- I forgot the breadcrumbs!

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Chicken breasts

Onion

Yellow Pepper

Mushrooms

White sauce (see sauce section)

Tabasco

Swiss cheese

Bread crumbs

 Method:

 Brown the onions and then the pepper and mushrooms then put on one side. Cube and cook the chicken. Make the white sauce, add the cheese and Tabasco and then add to the chicken, onions, mushrooms and pepper and then place in a casserole dish. Grate breadcrumbs on top and cook in an oven and serve with vegetables.

7. Boiled Eggs with Pandesal ( and on other days Muesli and Granola)

My favourite breakfast is Boiled Egg ( Itlog in Tagalog) with Mallangay Pandesal which Chester and I walk down the road to buy at 6 am when they open. The smell of the freshly baked bread is amazing. 

8. Cassava Pie

We get Cassava Pie weekly from the Sari Sari store and then heat it in the Microwave for our Merienda ( snack). Its freshly made daily and very healthy.

                                                               My Cassava Pie

If ,like me, you had not heard of Cassava before I found out that:

"Cassava (Manihot esculenta), also called manioc or tapioca root, is cultivated as an annual crop in tropical and subtropical regions for its edible starchy, tuberous root. Cassava, when dried to a powdery extract, is called tapioca."

"Cassava is a good source of resistant starch, which supports gut health and blood sugar management. It also contains vitamin C, a key micronutrient that can enhance immune function and collagen production."

Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/cassava#:~:text=Cassava%20(Manihot%20esculenta)%2C%20also,powdery%20extract%2C%20is%20called%20tapioca. ( accessed 14.03.23)

The good news is that all the Tuna is now used up!

It is Tuesday as I write this and already time to think about what I will eat next week to make my menu then create the shopping list to send to Jhoanna who can get the items on Thursday after her on job training.

I hope you enjoyed this weeks recipes and do not forget to check out our recipe book!