Tuna With a Twist

Ah yes the lovely can of tuna fish. My five sisters and I were raised on canned tuna fish being made into tuna sandwiches by my mom. She usually bought the least expensive 6 ounce canned tuna in oil. She would open two cans, drain the oil, add salad dressing, a little bit of yellow mustard, spread the tuna onto white bread and serve it for lunch. Since I was always hungry as a kid, I ate the sandwich as though it was my last meal. However, since two cans of tuna only made about five sandwiches, I would end up making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on top of that and drink a glass of milk.

Since my mom was not a very adventurous cook, as a kid I never thought about adding anything other than salad dressing or mustard to the tuna to kick up the favor. Plain food with a lot of salt was how my dad liked it. I did, though, once venture beyond the plain boundry by making a salad dressing for the iceberg lettuce dinner salad, that contained generic brand Miracle Whip, basil, thyme, and rosemary with a few sprinkles of red food coloring. I was so proud of my creation until I sat it on the dinner table. Wrong move. My dad had a fit and washed my salad dressing off the lettuce. Then to make his point he took the French dressing from the refrigerator and poured about half the bottle into the bowl until the lettuce was swimming in the dressing. So much for creativity.

So for years I made tuna fish, packed in water, the same way until up to about five years ago when I met a guy who loved spiced up foods and I began experimenting with spices. The following tuna salad recipe is an example of that experimentation. It is good and I tend to eat most of it in one setting. So give it a try, you'll like it.

Twisted Tuna
6 ounce can of chunk light tuna in water
3 TBSPs pickle relish
1 tsp hot chinese mustard
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tsp Mongollian fire oil (can find this in the oriental section of any grocery store)
Miracle Whip (as much as you want)
1/2 stick cropped celery
1 tsp Indian curry powder
1/2 tsp of my Mexican spice mix (mix 2 TBSP's of mild chili powder, cumin, cayenne and
Spanish paprika together)
You can also add cropped green onion or white onion optional.
Mix and serve as you wish.

Tomorrow Chili Con Carne.