Marc's Favorite Dinner - So easy to please...

My husband Marc is a meat and potato man, his favorite dinner, believe it or not, is a Tuna Fish and Egg Salad cold plate. I ask you, would any self respecting Italian girl call that dinner? Now, I am not stupid, and I'm not complaining...15 minutes to get dinner ready, a trip to the local bagel store, The Bagel Grove, and it works for me.

Since I had to go out to dinner recently and had to leave him to fend for himself, I thought I would be nice and leave the salads ready for him...surely, even he can slice a bagel and make a sandwich. I was wondering if when I leave for Las Vegas in a few weeks, if I could leave him a 2 week supply.

Everybody is probably wondering why I would bother to post a simple tuna salad to a food blog...

The answer is that I have a lot of novice, and I mean very novice cooks, who follow this blog and I'd like to think that I am helping them with the basic skills of cooking 101.

In addition to the fact, that for some reason, everyone who eats my tuna salad seems to really like it. I can't even take the credit. When I was a teenager growing up in Brooklyn/Queens, there used to be a German delicatessen on Jamaica Avenue that made the best salads. We used to walk over from our High School, Franklin K. Lane, and have lunch there (ask me to remember the name, my middle age is blocking the thought process). I loved the tuna sandwiches that the owner made.

One day, being the pushy little New Yorker that I am, I asked him, why his tuna fish tasted so good. "Sugar." I thought maybe he was being fresh with me, so I said, "What?" He said, "Sugar, I put a little sugar in the tuna and it takes away the fishy taste." He was right, it really took away the fishy taste. So here is the tuna salad, with the secret ingredient, a little sugar, and a tiny bit of carrot too, he told me. It's the best!

ELISE'S TUNA FISH SALAD

3 (12 ounce) cans Bumblebee® or Star-Kist® chunk White Tuna in water
1 medium-large onion, peeled and finely chopped or diced
3-4 stalks celery, washed, chopped into a fine dice
9 baby carrots (3 for every can of 12 ounce tuna, or 1 regular size carrot, peeled and grated)
3 teaspoons sugar
Mayonnaise to taste (about 1 cup)


Open and drain the cans of tuna well. Use a fork to break it apart the tuna if you like it on the medium to chunky side. If you like it very smooth, place tuna in a food processor and pulse until the texture you prefer, being very careful not to over process it. Place the tuna in a bowl. Take the onion and celery and process it until it is fine, or chop it by hand. Add to the tuna in the bowl. Shred one carrot in the food processor using the fine shredding disc or grate the carrot; add to the tuna. Add the sugar; add mayonnaise to taste. Chill or serve at room temperature.
You can easily cut this in half, but it stays so well in the refrigerator, that you can use it for lunch for the following week.
Serves 6 to 8

Here is what you will need for the recipe:

Open and drain

the cans of tuna well.


Place the tuna in a bowl
I use a fork to break apart the tuna


Peel the onion


Place on a cutting board


Make thin cuts in one direction

then, turn 90 degrees and cut again


You will have a fine dice, if you want


it even finer, just chop it a little more
set aside


See the dirty celery,


Wash the celery


Cut off the top and


the bottom ends


Cut each stalk into 3-4 pieces lengthwise


Hold the 3-4 pieces together


Chop into a fine dice and set aside and set aside


Shred one carrot or baby carrots


in the food processor
using the fine shredding disc or
grate the carrot (I use a microsplane grater;



and set aside


Add the onion to the tuna


the celery


the carrot

and the sugar to the tuna


add mayonnaise to taste
(I used 1 cup for three cans)
Add as much or as little as you like


Use a fork to blend together
going to the bottom of the bowl
as if you were folding in
egg whites into a batter
so you will incorporate the


onions, celery, carrots, and sugar well


Place in a serving bowl
and garnish if you like
(I am an anti-parsley on all my food
girl, so I left it plain, but you
could put some parsley, or carrots, or
some paprika sprinkled on the top...
me I like it bare naked!


Chill or serve at room temperature