This is the kind of dish you might be embarrassed to serve to company. You could probably fancy it up by using some kind of artisan bread, and going with seared ahi or tuna steaks or something with better foodie cred than canned tuna. But when you're not worried about impressing anyone, this is comfort food that will take you straight back to your childhood.
And in honor of childhood, this recpie is being submitted for the Food for Plastic Challenge III. Tupperware will be donating some of the sales to the Boys & Girls Clubs. Head on over and vote for this if you like it.
Ingredients
2 small cans tuna (6 ounces each)
4 hamburger buns
2 large eggs
1/2 cup mayonnaise (don't measure this, see below)
1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Directions
Before starting, turn the oven on to 450°, and set the rack at least 9-12 inches from the top. Open the tuna and drain well.
Set the tuna aside and separate the two eggs. No, this does not mean put one egg on the left side of the table and the other egg on the right side of the table. (Smart alec.) It means separate the white from the yolk.
There are lots of tools that are supposed to help you with this, like this one:
You're supposed to crack the egg into the separator, and the white will drain out through the hole while the yolk stays behind. But I can't figure out which hand to hold it with while I'm using both of mine to crack the eggs. I think you're supposed to crack the eggs one at a time into a cup, then pour it into the separator thing. But if you do that, you end up with an extra cup -- and the separator -- to wash when you're done.
That's why I do it the way I learned growing up. Crack the egg in half, then pour the yolk back and forth between the two halves, letting the white run over the edge.
Do this for both eggs and you should have about a quarter-cup of egg whites and two yolks.
If you want to really go all out, take the two yolks and make your own mayonnaise. If not, either give the yolks to your dog or dump them down the drain. Eggs are about a dollar a dozen, you can afford to dump out two yolks.
Mix as much mayonnaise as you like into the drained tuna. Some people like it nearly dry, some like it soupy. If you've never made tuna fish and you're not sure exactly how much mayo you need for two cans, just mix in one spoonful at a time until it looks right. Although if you've really never even made tuna fish, I don't know that you should be playing with the oven.
Now we're going to turn the whites into a meringue. That just means whip it until it gets light and fluffy. Put the whites in a large bowl and go at it with a beater.
If you're going fast enough, you should see them starting to foam up almost immediately.
Keep going until you have a bowl full of white fluff.
Now you're ready for assembly. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. (It doesn't make a difference to the food, it just makes cleanup easier.) Lay out the hamburger buns, and divide the tuna evenly among them.
Top each one with a spoonful of the whipped egg.
Then a little of the mozzarella.
Now switch the oven to the broiler setting and put the pan in. Don't worry if it hasn't finished pre-heating yet, you just want it to not be cold when you start cooking. Don't walk away. The cheese will start to bubble in less than a minute. You'll get a really good idea of where the hot spots are in your burners by looking at the tops of the tuna puffs when you pull them out.
If you want them to be evenly finished, swap them around on the pan to put the less-finished ones under the hotspots. As long as you don't have any completely raw, though, you can plate them up with a little variety in done-ness. Let the kids pick which ones they think are "better" and you take the rest. Really, though, they'll all be good.
16 comments:
Great egg separation tips there! That is how I do it, the old half shell split.
Thanks for the pesto tips earlier by the way.
If I can get my wife to help out with the photography, I think I'm going to put up a bunch more "Cooking 101" type posts. It's surprising (to me, anyway) how many of my hits are to the How To posts.
And I'll definitely be doing a pesto post this summer when I start harvesting.
Hi Drew!
Thanks for commenting on my blog! Your cookbook looks very interesting, and your blog is wonderful - I put it on my blogroll to make sure I visit often.
I make Pesto too! I freeze it in ice cube trays to use all winter.
Thanks,
Pat
Good idea for the 'How to' posts - I was thinking about posting something along the lines of 'What do you use in your kitchen' and get people to show their kitchen wares as well.
Anyway, I have tagged you in this game...
http://ryansrecipeblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/meme.html
Have a go if you have time, and comment back at my post!
Pat, did you see my other post about that? The ice cube trays I mean. I was just suggesting that to someone else.
I guess great minds think alike.
Drew!
I enjoyed checking out your blog. I noticed you have the same little cutting board that I have (you might notice it in a picture or two). I also noticed that we both have a similar recipe for potato salad, with the eggs, vinegar, bacon. I love it!
Oh, and, yeah, the microwave just makes that sauce too easy. I don't know as if the recipe's actually tastier, but I love having it be easier.
Thanks for your comment :)
Jen
My husband and I do something similar to this, we call them Tuna Melts. Adding the puffy topping looks really good, we'll have to give that a try!
Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment. Means a lot!
www.baskersfunfoods.blogspot.com
Drew-
I love tuna melts. We put the tuna salad on toasted english muffins and top with sharp cheddar. I haven’t had them in awhile...Thanks for the idea! With all the recipes floating around in the world, why do we get stuck in ruts? lol
Jennifer, I've never seen anyone else do the potato salad with bacon. I was doing a cross between "regular" potato salad and German potato salad. When it was still warm it was great.
Stephanie and toontz, I would never have called anything a tuna melt unless it was on rye or sourdough. What a silly "rule" that is. I should just call this dish tuna melt ... umm ... meringue doesn't quite work. Okay, tuna melt something. Any ideas?
These look great!
Thanks for visiting my blog - I've put you in my Google Reader and look forward to reading you regularly.
The potato salad recipe looks wonderful too - just how I like mine as well.
I guess I really shouldn't be as surprised as I am, but I've gotten more feedback on this, the simplest thing I've done, than on the lasagna ... or the standing rib roast ... or the pasta carbonara with home-made pasta.
I think I'll post a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I'll probably make the front page of Digg, Tastespotting and StumbleUpon.
Oh this is a great entry for the Food for Plastic Challenge. It is definitely something I would've like to eat as a child (not that I wouldn't eat it now) To separate eggs I use my bare hands. I somehow always manage to break the yolks when I use the shell method :-/
Thanks for the entry and good luck!
Ben, my wife thinks this is "kids' food" too. I'm going to have to do the grown up version I was talking about. Let's see, ciabatta bread, capers in the tuna, hmm ...
i have one of the egg separators that came with measuring cups. i use it when i'm feeling particularly clumsy. instead of dirtying another cup, i set it over a measuring cup i've already used to measure flour or sugar or whatever. no egg shells and not extra dirty cups.
Why wouldn't you want to serve it to company??? That would be great!! It looks good and even though I just ate lunch, I wouldn't mind trying those Tuna Puffs right now. Yum!
Thank you!!! I can see that I'm going to be adding to my recipe collection.
Jaz, stick around. (Try subscribing with the link to the right.) I'm going to be doing a "grown up" version of this one. Same basic recipe, but I'll do it on "fancy" bread and see what people say.
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