Category Archives: Nutrition

Nutritional information

Tuna salad

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Not that there’s anything wrong with traditional American tuna salad, but there are lots of other things to do with  tuna.  I like tuna, but I don’t want “tuna salad” in the traditional sense every time, so I’ve come up with lots of variations.  Some of the best are made with the “leftovers” from grilling a lovely big tuna steak or with my homemade tuna confit.

My “salad” might have onion and celery (if present in the refrigerator) but it’s certainly not a requirement; no mayonnaise either (though I do like the stuff).   Home from work, not going back out to the grocery store; it’s warm enough that I don’t want anything hot for lunch.  What have I got to work with from the pantry and the refrigerator?

If you think about the basic American tuna salad, it has very few ingredients:  usually mayonnaise, celery, onions, and maybe hard-boiled egg, or sometimes pickle relish.

Personally I find the usual supermarket canned tuna to be unappetizing–dry and crumbly if it’s water-packed white albacore, sometimes mushy  and fishy lacking in any real texture,  so I understand why it’s often hidden in the mayonnaise, but there are now  reasonably priced alternatives available.  If I don’t have homemade confit, I’ll be using a single-cooked canned tuna that more nearly approximates the quality of European canned tuna.

Starting with good quality  tuna, unless you want to go all the way and make salad à la niçoise you really don’t need many ingredients.  You don’t really want to overwhelm the tuna (since we are using good tuna here) so the components you need are:

  • some contrasting texture and flavor ingredients
  • just a bit of oil
  • a little acid to brighten it up.
  • fresh-ground black pepper
  • some fresh herbs for extra flavor

Starting with a six-ounce can of tuna, here are some possible things to do:

  • For something light, refreshing  and crunchy for a sweltering day, I like to use diced cucumber, scallions, red onion or sweet onion like Vidalia (depending on what’s in the fridge), fresh-ground black pepper, salt (if the tuna has no added salt), about a teaspoon of very fruity extra-virgin olive oil, a squeeze of lemon juice, and some finely chopped spearmint.
  • For something really quick, I’ve  added some  fresh onion, sweet bell pepper,  diced chile peppers for texture and some salsa  from a jar.  Chipotle salsa can give you a warmer, smoky taste.
  • If you want a heartier salad, add to your tuna some drained, rinsed white beans (great northern or cannellini are my favorites), tomatoes, chopped onion, green or black olives, some extra-virgin olive oil or aïoli (easy to make a quick version if you have decent mayonnaise in the fridge) and some fresh oregano.
  • If you have some pesto in the fridge, try chopped onion (almost always use this), diced tomato, capers, or olives. If there’s pasta around, that can be added too.
  • I usually have a jar of a fruit salsa in the fridge as well and that makes a good start.  Add sweet onion like Vidalia or Walla Walla, more fruit such as peaches or mango, some ripe bell peppers.
  • Black beans, diced tomatoes, onions, chile pepper, ripe bell pepper (I’m just not fond of green bell peppers so I don’t use them), celery, and even some corn and a vinaigrette with a light touch of chilli powder added.
  • For an oriental take on the tuna salad,  a bit of sesame oil (the kind from roasted sesame seeds) with some ginger, green onions, a little garlic if you like, with cucumbers, celery.
  • That extra serving of roasted vegetables–even potatoes–with cherry tomatoes, and a splash of vinaigrette, maybe some fresh thyme.

Obviously, a many of these suggestions would work equally well with chicken if you have that instead, or don’t like tuna.  It’s easy to improvise a quick salad if you start with a serving of meat. The possibilities are really almost endless–just follow your own taste.

A son goût! 

Tuna confit…

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Steaks and chops lend themselves beautifully to cooking for one.  One of my favorites is tuna steak, griddled or grilled–served with a side of spinach risotto  and a salad it’s a very quick, easy meal.  If there is leftover from the tuna steak, it can be used in tuna salad.  But sometimes I want to tuna salad when I don’t have leftover tuna steak.  What to do then?

I dislike the “average” can to tuna that is fishy, mushy, and buy the “solid white albacore” which is likely packed in water, but still dry since it’s cooked twice in the processing (Cook’s Illustrated, July/August 2011). I love the expensive, olive-oil packed European tuna–but my budget doesn’t permit it so I’m always looking for alternatives.

One of the things that I like about Cook’s Illustrated is the comparison of products readily available in the American supermarket–that is, after all, where I do most of my shopping. Those products are reviewed without knowledge of the manufacturer, and are not supplied by the manufacturer–so I do tend to give them some credence.

American Tuna image of canIn the July/August issue, there is a comparison of major brands of canned tuna and some newcomers on the market.  The two newcomer brands were Wild Planet Wild Albacore Tuna and American Tuna Pole Caught Wild Albacore. Both these were single-cooked products and had much less liquid and more tuna.  True there were a bit more expensive but not nearly so prohibitive as the European canned products.  There are a variety of different products available from both companies (salmon, sardines). In both cases, products are available with no salt added, or with sea salt add–such a simple ingredient list on the tuna:  albacore tuna (and maybe sea salt)–nothing else.

Image of Wild Planet albacore canSince I like tuna and use it both as a salad ingredient and as a staple in my “emergency” food supply, I wanted to check this out.  I went in search of some of both.  I found the Wild Planet albacore tuna and tried it in a simple non-mayonnaise tuna salad.  I was impressed–I’ll definitely be buying this for my tuna.  I have yet to find American Tuna, but given the review in Cook’s Illustrated, I suspect that I’ll like that one too.  I found the Wild Planet tuna at Whole Foods.  Though Kroger was listed on the retail list, the one closest to me did not have it on the shelf.  The American Tuna products are listed as being available at Whole Foods but apparently have not reached out local Whole Foods yet.  I’ll be watching.

I’ve tasted (and love) the expensive “gourmet” European tuna, but it’s not in my budget, so these products at a more reasonable price are welcome.

There is another alternative for good tuna which will approach the European canned tuna, though not really for the “emergency” food supply since that needs to be canned.  That is to make your own tuna confit.

Confit was originally a way of preserving meats–pork, goose, and duck–by cooking them very gently in their own fat, straining the fat and using it to seal the meat away from air for storage.  It produces meats that are markedly different in texture from those cooked in other ways–smooth, velvety are the adjectives that come to mind, at least in reference to duck and chicken.

I’m lucky to live close to a Harris Teeter which has high-grade tuna.  Every once in a while they will have it on a managers special, or will have smaller pieces left from cutting the tuna steaks which are sold at a reasonable price as “tuna medallions”.  Every time I see those (or steaks) on sale I get some and make my own tuna confit.  So for you tuna lovers, here is a master recipe from Fine Cooking 46, pp. 68-69, January 6, 2004.  I usually halve the recipe since I’m a solo cook.

Tuna Confit

Ingredients

3 cups good-quality olive oil (but not best); more if needed to cover the tuna during cooking
1 medium yellow onion, cut in 1/2-inch slices
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
6 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. black peppercorns, coarsely cracked
Zest of 1 lemon, pared in strips
3 Tbs. coarse salt
2 lb. top-quality fresh tuna (yellowfin or ahi), cut into 1-inch-thick steaks

Preparation

  • Combine the oil, onion, herbs, peppercorns, lemon zest, and salt in a deep sauté pan or Dutch oven.  Heat to between 140° and 150°F, stirring occasionally and cook for 20 minutes to infuse the flavors of the aromatics into the oil and to pasteurize it for a long shelf life. Taste the oil; it should be slightly salty. Leave to cool and infuse for about 30 minutes; the oil will be warm.
  • Put the pan back over medium-low heat and slip the tuna into the barely warm oil. (Add as many pieces as will fit in one layer. The tuna must be covered by the oil; add more if needed.) Slowly bring the oil to 150°F again. Turn off the heat, take the pot off the heat, and let the tuna cook slowly in the warm oil. After a minute or two, test for doneness by breaking into the flake of the tuna. The fish should be cooked to medium rare-slightly pink inside and still tender to the touch. If the tuna isn’t quite done, return it to the oil for another minute. Repeat with any remaining pieces of tuna.
  • Transfer the tuna to a storage dish (I prefer glass or crockery, but an airtight plastic container will  do fine) and let it cool. Let the oil cool separately and then strain the oil over the fish, discarding the aromatics. If the tuna isn’t completely covered in  oil, add more fresh olive oil to the storage dish. If not using right away, cover the container tightly and refrigerate. The tuna will keep, covered in oil and refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.

Nutrition information (per ounce of tuna)

  • Calories (kcal): 60
  • Fat (g): 3
    • Fat Calories (kcal) 30
    • Saturated Fat (g) 0.5
    • Monounsaturated Fat (g) 2
    • Polyunsaturated Fat (g) 0.5
  • Protein (g)  7
  • Carbohydrates (g) 0
  • Sodium (mg) 85
  • Cholesterol (mg) 15
  • Fiber (g) 0
♦♦♦

It’s easy to make this with much less than a pound of tuna–I occasionally do it with a single tuna steak in the summer when I’m really eating lots of salads and want to have them be a meal.

I use the confit to make tuna salad–but usually without mayonnaise–this is not dry so it’s not necessary to have the mayo to make it edible.  I generally pat it dry and use just a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil with herbs, and some scallions, or cucumbers, or really splurge and do a salad à la niçoise.

Whole wheat pita bread

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Baba ghanoush with olive oil and parsleyNow that you have baba ghanoush, you need something to dip in it.  Crudities are always good—and healthy, especially in the summer when there are grape tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, or even blanched green beans.  The traditional thing to have with baba ghanoush, however, is pita bread.  I’m sure that you can find pita at your market but it’s very easy to make and tastes so good freshly baked.

I’ve posted about the no-knead bread dough that can be kept in the refrigerator for about two weeks.  You can use that same dough to make flat breads (pita included), crackers, pizza crust, and the like as well.  It’s just a matter of how you treat the dough.

The same authors who did Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day now have another book out:  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.  This no-knead method is SO easy, and works so well for single-serving cooking that I had to try this one too.

The master recipe in this is for a whole-wheat bread.  That basic dough can be used for pita bread as well.   That master recipe can be found on one of my favorite food-related blogs, Former Chef–so I’ll not reproduce it here.   I’ve made this recipe using white whole wheat flour.  I’ll admit that I’m partial to King Arthur flours; it’s available in my supermarket–so that is what I’ve used.

Pita bread

just out of the oven…

To make pita bread you don’t need to let the dough rise before baking so it’s very quick.  Just develop the gluten cloak  in the usual way. Since I wanted to do smaller pitas, I used about 75 to 100 grams of dough for each portion, “cloaking” each small portion and flattening it, rolling it out to about 1/8 inch thickness.

Since I did four at a time, I baked them on parchment paper on a baking sheet rather than directly on the stone.  With the 450 to 500 ° F oven it takes only about

Remove from the oven and wrap in a towel on a cooling rack.  They may “deflate”,

but the “pocket” is still there.   Pitas made from whole-grain flours may not puff as much as if made from unbleached all-purpose  white flour.

Since these are not crusty, you can store in a plastic bag.

Healthy eating & living

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I’m back from the Wake Forest Farmer’s Market–with blackberries, blueberries, sweet corn and other goodies.  One of the things I enjoy about selling at that market is the people I’m meeting.  In chatting with one of my customers today, a Health Coach, I discovered a website that has some good health and nutrition information.   Recipes here are simple, healthy and focus on good ingredients.

Keep it cool

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Cleaning out the is refrigerator is such a drag!  For those of us cooking for one, it is often triggered by that appalling smell that greets us when we open the door of the refrigerator to get the milk for morning coffee.  It is the harbinger of the lost leftover or the bunch of beautiful leafy green stuff (now transformed into juicy, olive-drab color in the crisper because it was simply too much to use?  How do we avoid this kind of waste?

I’ve always disliked wasting food; I’ve also always had a dislike of most leftovers—they usually taste leftover!  Admittedly there are thing better on the second day—but that does not make them leftovers that I dislike.  It’s true leftover leftovers that I dislike so I’ve always looked for ways not to have them.  Frequently, that involves sharing the pot of soup with a friend and putting some in the freezer, because I am constitutionally incapable of making a small pot of soup!  Most of my neighbors understand about my “food crises”.

The implications of my dislike of leftovers and having too large a quantity of something was brought home to me recently when I was reading about sustainable agriculture.  In Just Food by James E. McWilliams was a discussion of the carbon footprint of food.  We typically think in “food-miles”, but he introduced the concept of “life-cycle assessment” which looked at the energy consumption of food production from seed to its appearance on the table.  There were some startling statistics there—the greatest energy consumption, according the studies cited by this author, is in production, not transportation.  What really hit me was the studies on food waste:  1.28 pounds per day per typical household (p. 28).  So?  I know I’m not a typical household, just me and the cat, but I had to wonder about the amount of waste from my food use. (Admittedly, the cat usually leaves the bits of carrot and onion from her tiny part of the beef stew, but let’s not get too picky here.)  I am interested in environmental responsibility, carbon footprint; so I need to waste less food.  How can I do that?

Assuming that I cannot buy smaller quantities, I obviously must be more efficient in my use of whatever quantity I purchase.  So I need to do some “prep”, not just put what I don’t use into a plastic bag and put it in the refrigerator.  There are two primary causes of spoilage (changes in texture and flavor that make food inedible):  microbial action, and the plant’s own enzymes (On Food and Cooking, Harold McGee, p. 166).  Obviously just simple refrigeration is not enough for my rate of usage–in order to prolong the viability, I need to protect against microbial action and against the action of enzymes.  That would suggest at least blanching the extra green stuff (or any other color veggies) before I refrigerate or freeze them.  Not anything too time consuming in that.

Blanching is a simple technique: In this process, food is simply immersed in boiling water for a short period (depending on thickness) and then plunged into ice water.  This is enough to kill surface microbes and to inactivate enzymes, so my green stuff should stay edible longer.  The down side of that is it may be an extra step–I certainly don’t want that.  Cooking also achieves these ends–so maybe I can sauté my greens in some basic way that will allow me multiple uses and eliminate the extra step (and energy expenditure) and still preserve them; however, despite the cooking, the food still needs to be treated as a “leftover” (not eaten within two hours of cooking) and safety precautions for “leftovers” observed.  The rule of thumb seems to be 4 days for things like cooked meats, chicken, et cetera; if it smells off, don’t eat it even if it’s less than four days.  Lots of additional information is available from some of the links above.

Toscano kale, or other greens can be sautéed quickly with some basic seasonings, for example, a mild olive oil, a bit of salt and then have additional seasonings added as needed for other uses.  I’ve done this basic thing and use the prepped greens in pasta sauce, filling for an omelette, as a side dish with some red pepper flakes and garlic added…very flexible and the entire batch of greens got used!  Planned, flexible leftovers!

That raises the question of how long can I store something like the cooked greens in my refrigerator and still not lose taste or have a health hazard.  First the refrigerator should be set to hold a temperature of 40 ° F  or less (USDA) or less.  You should keep a refrigerator thermometer (inexpensive and available at the grocery store) to monitor the temperature of the refrigerator.  If it is within that range, you can find suggested time for refrigeration of meats, poultry, seafood at FoodSafety.gov.  But remember that the safety of refrigerated leftovers depends on their proper cooling and storage.  Don’t leave your hot food to cool on the counter.  Put it in the refrigerator right away–that’s what refrigerators are for–to cool things and keep them cold.  See the food safety links for instructions on how to cool foods properly and how to store and use leftovers safely.

Cool & refreshing

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A bit of a digression here.

We’ve had some real scorchers here this summer.    Friday and Saturday I had to be outdoors almost all day: getting ready for the Farmers’ Market on Friday (digging potatoes, onions) and Saturday, at the market.  Both days were 90+ ° F  and I guzzled Gatorade and water like both were going out of style. I don’t really like Gatorade, but I drink it because it works when I’m outdoors and sweating like a dripping faucet.   Sunday I was lucky enough to be able to stay indoors!

Today I was just doing chores around the house. It was nice enough to have the windows open (thermometer on the back porch reading a mere 83 ° F). In addition to the usual water for thirst, I wanted something (NOT Gatorade) with a little zip to drink. Bored with plain water, I certainly did not want to go to the grocery store and buy flavored water because to me most of the zero-calorie beverages have a very chemical, strange taste, and  the controversy over the quality of bottled waters.   Iced tea was just not appealing either.

Standing on the deck looking at the herbs, I found inspiration in the emerald green leaves of the mint that grows happily in a pot there.  I took about a dozen mint leaves and one fairly large stevia leaf (Stevia rebaudiana ‘AC™ GIIA11’ originally obtained from Richter’s Herb Specialists).  I bruised all the leaves with a pestle, added a cup of water, microwaved it for two minutes, and diluted it in a half-gallon jug (with filtered tap water).  Adding ice, I had a lightly flavored glass of water that was very refreshing to drink.Here is another refreshing-sounding drink recipe for this really hot weather.

Heat makes me want cool refreshing things but they must have something a to satisfy my need for protein.  A  friend posted a “recipe” for watermelon and feta cheese salad with mint.  I’ve eaten so much of it in the last few days.  Needs no extra dressing or anything like that. The flavor synergy between the mint and the watermelon is awesome!  Watermelon is such a great hot-weather food that I’ve been on the lookout for other watermelon things.  This watermelon lemonade sounds great too.  A local restaurant here had the watermelon/feta/mint combination on the menu with a buttermilk-lime dressing.  As tempting as that was on the evening that I ate there, I passed on that because I had been eating the other version for the last two days.  The addition of the citrus made me wonder about adding some mint to the watermelon lemonade watermelon to the mint water (above) for a summer quaff.  Another thing to try before the summer is over.