Comfort Tuna Casserole

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erehweslefox

Sous Chef
Joined
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578
Location
Hatfield, PA
So Beloved Wife is having a 'difficult' week. She has been out Lawyerin', but her clients have not been cooperative and it makes her sad, because she is a good lawyer, and just wants good results for her clients, and sometimes they don't cooperate. For her, comfort food is Tuna Casserole. So this is mine.

To wit:

4 cups milk
1 big can canned tuna
16 oz Rotini pasta
1 can Ro-Tell tomatoes
16 oz frozen broccoli cuts
2 cups cheese of some kind, shredded (motz is good swiss or asiago is better)
1 tbsp mustard
2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp corn starch

OK, start by boiling the pasta, drain and reserve.

That, the can of tomatoes, the broccoli, and the tuna, put that in a big casserole dish.

Bring the milk to a low heat, and stir in cheese and spices. You don't want to scald the milk on this, once the cheese is melted and the spices seem to be evenly distributed, add corn starch and stir.

Pour this over the rest, and stir.

You can sprinkle some cheese, if you have any left, on the top, but this basically just goes in the oven at 345 for a half hour.

I serve this with bread, heck I serve everything with bread, but it also freezes quite well, so make more than you need.

Cheers,

TBS (fox)
 
Can we get free legal help? ;)

You got a workmans comp, Social Security Divisibility, or a credit card problem, I'll pass it on. If it filters through me, it isn't legal advice, because I am NOT a lawyer.

My Beloved Wife, however, is the best lawyer in Pennsylvania. There might be some PA supreme court judges that are close, but yeah, Beloved Wife is the best.
 
Tuna casserole, NEVER going to be seen on our table. Bad childhood memory.:wacko: Now a great Nicoise salad and we're talking. If using canned tuna, it has to be yellowfin packed in olive oil, from either Spain or Italy!:yum:
 
Tuna casserole, NEVER going to be seen on our table. Bad childhood memory.:wacko: Now a great Nicoise salad and we're talking. If using canned tuna, it has to be yellowfin packed in olive oil, from either Spain or Italy!:yum:

I did a taste test with foodie friends, on that.

Yeah tuna cassarole is the heart and soul of major childhood food trauma, right behind poorly made brussel sprouts or broccoli, which are the mussel on it.

I just laugh, Yellowfin, packaged in Italia in olive oil... Just like sardines, unless you go with an artisnal sardine, (and yeah I know that sounds heavy hipster, but it exists, and you are the one that thinks your sardines come from a particular country). The tuna fisheries are set, you are deciding where it is processed.

I bet you couldn't tell the difference between that and the chicken of the sea tinned variety. Now not if it is left alone, as they don't grind it, and leave it looking like fish, but put into a simple dish, like a risotto, or a say casserole.

Your chosen, Yellowfin (that is something made up by tuna sellers), packaged in olive oil (mostly not olive oil) with a bit of barley starch to make a pate, vs my Weis Markets discount tuna (probably has dolphin) with canola oil (well, can't afford olive oil), and same barley starch, will you notice a difference in taste? Unlikely
 
I did a taste test with foodie friends, on that.

Yeah tuna cassarole is the heart and soul of major childhood food trauma, right behind poorly made brussel sprouts or broccoli, which are the mussel on it.

I just laugh, Yellowfin, packaged in Italia in olive oil... Just like sardines, unless you go with an artisnal sardine, (and yeah I know that sounds heavy hipster, but it exists, and you are the one that thinks your sardines come from a particular country). The tuna fisheries are set, you are deciding where it is processed.

I bet you couldn't tell the difference between that and the chicken of the sea tinned variety. Now not if it is left alone, as they don't grind it, and leave it looking like fish, but put into a simple dish, like a risotto, or a say casserole.

Your chosen, Yellowfin (that is something made up by tuna sellers), packaged in olive oil (mostly not olive oil) with a bit of barley starch to make a pate, vs my Weis Markets discount tuna (probably has dolphin) with canola oil (well, can't afford olive oil), and same barley starch, will you notice a difference in taste? Unlikely

Hahahahaha!:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO: You are full of it. There are several folks on DC that tried the yellowfin (at my suggestion) vs the albacore and can taste the difference. If you don't know what you are talking about, maybe you should refrain from comment.:rolleyes:
 
I have written about this several times. I will NOT touch the supermarket brands, don't even want to be in the house when one of those cans is opened, but I'll happily eat a nicoise salad made with one of the premium Italian or Spanish brands. The appearance is like fresh tuna that has been cooked to well and there's no fishy tuna smell. Oh, and the tuna isn't a pate. It breaks and flakes.
 
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Honestly, Craig, I swear the Bluebird of Happiness craps on your breakfast half the time. :rolleyes: The Grumpy Old Man routine is getting...old.

So Beloved Wife is having a 'difficult' week...For her, comfort food is Tuna Casserole. So this is mine.

To wit:

4 cups milk
1 big can canned tuna
16 oz Rotini pasta
1 can Ro-Tell tomatoes
16 oz frozen broccoli cuts
2 cups cheese of some kind, shredded (motz is good swiss or asiago is better)
1 tbsp mustard
2 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp corn starch...
'Fox, there is no way in hades that I would waste high-priced tuna in a casserole. With all of those strong flavors in your casserole, it would be impossible to taste any difference between cheap and pricey. Still, even for my own lowly tuna casseroles I wouldn't used chunk light because it usually looks worse than the canned cat food I gave our now-long-gone kitties. I use solid, less expensive canned for tuna salad, too, because of all that I add to tuna salad. It works for us, and we are the only people I need to please. If Beloved Wife is happy with your dish, that's all that counts.

If I make a cold salad and want a good-quality tuna on my plate, I do something similar to what Addie said in the thread that Craig linked to: I take a piece of tuna, cook it, and use that. Since Trader Joe's keeps a quality frozen tuna in stock, I try to make sure I always have a package or two in the freezer, just in case.
 
If you don't know what you are talking about, maybe you should refrain from comment.:rolleyes:

Oh, it is OK CraigC, I do admit that yellowfin in qualitatively and quantitatively better. Without reservation. Admitted. Stipulated. Done.

A lot of times my cooking isn't about best results with fresh awesome ingredients, but doing what you can with what you have. And you know what I think of when I see a couple dented cans on the grocery clearance rack of Chicken o' the sea? SCORE.

I am proud of knowing how to cook, I've been on a brigade in a couple of restaurants. Have you?

So to be simple, I know what I am talking about. Yeah I would love to use fresh wild tuna that jumped into my net for a tuna recipe, why would you make that into casserole?

Can use a can of chicken of the sea, and a packet of ramen, two potatoes, and a package of frozen peas and make a meal, can you?

I am having faith that you were trying to be instructive, and not a jerk, and didn't think I realized there were different qualities of tuna.

You want me to give you recipes you can't execute? I can do that.

I back down on that, and we should be friends, did you even try my recipe? or suggest a better one with 'good' tuna?

TBS
 
there is no way in hades that I would waste high-priced tuna in a casserole. With all of those strong flavors in your casserole, it would be impossible to taste any difference between cheap and pricey. Still, even for my own lowly tuna casseroles I wouldn't used chunk light because it usually looks worse than the canned cat food I gave our now-long-gone kitties. I use solid, less expensive canned for tuna salad, too, because of all that I add to tuna salad.


THIS is the way to give constructive criticism on a post, Craig Jerk.

CG, strong flavors are designed to mask the tastes. If I had good tuna, I might make it very differently. It might be a regional thing, but I generally see chunk light cheaper than solid. I buy on the price point, solid, after all can be light chunk with a fork in it. Canned tuna I shred the heck out of it before I use it in a recipe, no recipe I have had or, I think, will even have relies on the cohesiveness of canned tuna.
 
Now now boys.

Looks like a perfectly good recipe to me, thanks, Fox.

I use the Starkist tuna in oil in the pouch for my tuna casserole, not having the good fortune of living anywhere near an ocean or large lake. Catfish casserole just doesn't sound as appealing. Which is what we get on Old Man River. Or maybe carp, which sounds even worse.
 
Catfish casserole just doesn't sound as appealing. Which is what we get on Old Man River. Or maybe carp, which sounds even worse.

I am living and from Pennsylvania, but my wife and I spent four years living in Tulsa. I might have a catfish recipe, or even a carp one about here somewhere, still have my OK fishing license.

If you want to cook catfish, or other bottom feeders, needs must a source of acid, limes, lemons, citrus fruits, etc....

Made all kinds of things from catfish. Wife is Jewish, catfish latkes? yeah, can do that. Needs potato.

Best,
TBS
 
Thanks for the offer! I'm more of a walleye girl myself. And lion fish, when I'm in the Caribbean.

I'm just saying that there's nothing wrong with canned (or pouched) tuna for casserole.
 
Dawgluver,

Heck, there are a lot of things wrong with canned tuna. or pouched, know that.

But it is kind of a public record, we know this.

Pouched and canned tuna is a fairly easy protein to get, this was a recipe for that.

If you have a good lionfish recipe, do share, I know they are a trouble fish, but are edible.

TBS
 
Can you get lion fish in PA, fox? If you can, I will be moving there soon. It is beyond delicious. The best I've had is coconut crusted and fried till crunchy. A buddy who's from Italy and owns a restaurant mistakenly throws tomato sauce all over his lion fish. When we bring friends to his place, we tell them to order his sauce on the side, not smeared on that gorgeous lion fish fillet.
 
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I've gotta crow...

I did quick shops in two stores today, the second store for all of 3-4 items. Lo and behold when I got back to seafood for the on-sale frozen shrimp, one of the seafood cases (a small, mobile one they put out in the way of traffic to get your attenti...OOPS!) had a lovely display of wild, U.S tuna. I could not believe the price displayed on the sign: $5.99. Wha...? I asked the clerk at the counter when the fish was delivered. He told me it came in that morning. I made sure the price was right and not hiding a number "1" behind the dollar sign, and asked why it was so cheap. Apparently an extremely large catch had been made and they wanted to move a lot of the tuna along. I wasn't going to argue, Instead, I bought a number of small and medium-large pieces, wrapped each thoroughly for the freezer, and kept one out for supper tomorrow. Tuna on the menu for a while in the near future, just no casseroles. Can't do cold-weather meals when it's far from cold! :LOL:
 

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