Whenever I eat a tuna melt it takes me back to my childhood in northern BC.
One of my first friends had parents who belonged to the Royal Order of Elks. My parents weren’t remotely interested in joining clubs, but it looked pretty good to my young eyes.
Her parents got to march in the parade in bright purple jackets. And there were social events, like the summer barbeque or children’s Christmas party that I’d attend as her guest.
But what I liked best about the Elks was going to the lodge.
Avocado-tuna boats are a longstanding lunchtime favourite around here.
The tuna filling is entirely flexible, varying with the contents of the fridge and preferences of my lunch companions.
Radish can stand in for celery, fresh tomatoes for sundried, green onion for red, sliced olives for capers…
Now that I’ve overcome a lifelong pressure cooker phobia resulting from the applesauce incident, I prefer cooking dried beans to buying tinned.
It’s more work, but with recipes like tonno e fagioli, the difference in texture and taste is worth the extra effort. Continue reading
Fishcakes are a great store cupboard supper – quick to prepare using ingredients we nearly always have on hand. The addition of homemade tartare sauce makes it that bit more special, for those of us who like that sort of thing. For those who don’t, they are also nice with a wedge of lemon on the side. Continue reading
This simple tuna chickpea pitta sandwich is one of my lunchtime staples. I find the mix of textures particularly satisfying. It’s also low in fat and high in protein – the kind of food I’m looking for after recent indulgences.
The word “chowder” has such a North American ring to it. You don’t seem to get chowders much in the UK, which is a shame because its a perfect match for the English climate and local ingredients. There is nothing fancy about this tuna chowder – just potatoes, onions, tuna, corn, dill and milk, transformed into something supremely tasty and satisfying.
This was one of my favourite dinners as a child. Mum had a big china tureen she would transfer the tuna chowder into before bringing it to the table. I don’t own a tureen myself, and probably wouldn’t use it if I did. But I always liked the way she took that extra bit of effort to make family dinners feel special. To make us feel special really… Continue reading
For our French World Cup meal we’re having salad niçoise with chocolate mousse for dessert. We have salade niçoise a lot – quick, healthy and easy to customise each plate for each person’s preferences: extra anchovies for me, no tuna for Lyra, double onions for Adam, pass on the capers for Nova etc. Continue reading
We ate this along with our Uruguayan chivito sandwich. Russian salad is one of those dishes that is served round the world (with the exception of Russia?) Lyra eagle-eyed the small flakes of tuna and took against it, only eating a few bites, and scoring it a measly 3 out of 10. Continue reading
Ten More Bites 