Tuna Casserole Recipe w Albacore
Vote for Tuna Casserole Recipe w Albacore
Your nugget of nutritional 411 for this post:
Albacore Tuna is the Big Kahuna for this nugget of nutritional goodness. A no brainer that's actually good for the brain, let's fill our grey matter with selenium & potassium & relevant factoids about this finny food that's good no matter how you slice it--dice it, cut it, or can it.
'Cause i think it's a safe bet most of us enjoy this low-calorie protein in conjunction with a can opener, and that's great! Sure it tastes like an entirely different pescado when enjoyed fresh, but we're talking casserole here, not fine dining, so canned is fine. The chunky albacore style available these days is 2x as nice, and any variety of tuna canned in water has just 100 calories in a 3 oz. serving.
Omega 3's come to the table, too, and the Niacin present helps maintain the HDL cholesterol levels in your body--the good cholestrol.
The Results!
The Ingredients:
Recipe in Rebus:
Cook Time
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Ready in: 1 hour 10 min
Yields: 9x13 casserole serves 8
Ingredients
- 2 12 oz. cans solid albacore in water, drained, reserve juice
- 4 cups (32 oz.) egg noodles
- 5 stalks celery, diced
- 5 carrots, diced
- 8 oz. Bella mushrooms, sliced
- ½ cup (2 or 3, usually) shallots, minced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can sweet peas, drained, substitute fresh if desired, and you go!
- 2 cups ½ &½
- 1 cup NS chicken stock
- 2-4 TBSP. olive oil
- 4 TBSP. (few pats) butter, or butter substitute
- ½ cup Panko breadcrumbs
- ½ cup Italian style breadcrumbs
- 8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
- salt & pepper to taste
How to Do It:
- Grab your celery and carrots. Peel carrots, slice into halves and halve again, then dice those quadrants. Chop off tops of celery & dice. Set aside for now.
- Slice clean Bella mushrooms and set aside, also.
- Grab the shallots & garlic. Catch & release, though..;) Peel the shallots & garlic as demonstrated in the photo, and mince each, keeping separate from each other. Set these, too, aside for now. Hell find a side board at this juncture...
- Anyhoo. This is as good a time as any to prep your albacore. Drain the juice & reserve for the gravy you're about to make, and set the fish on that sideboard!!
- Head over to the stovetop, and add mushroom slices to sizzling oil. As you can see, it's a good idea to keep half the pan clear for the....
- ...shallots you're adding next! That's cooking with gas, all right, and once these 2 ingredients are happily distributed within the pan, go ahead and cover the pan, cooking them until translucent.
- Cook the noodles now, too. Add the pasta to rapidly boiling, salted water with maybe a skosh of olive oil drizzled in the water. Once the noodles are al dente, drain, and place in mixing bowl. Toss with light olive oil & set it on that ever-lovin', ever more crowded sideboard.
- Meanwhile, back at the Easy Bake. Add minced garlic to the now translucent shallot & mushroom mixture. As soon as you hear the garlic sizzle, add-->
- the flour! Stir into the frito well, and cook just a minute or two to get rid of any flour-ee taste. Flowers are for smellin'! Not tastin'...
- Okay. Add the reserved tuna juice. I'll skip the myriad of obvious jokes here, because this really IS a working recipe, much like tuna is like a --heh, never mind...
- Add the unsalted chicken stock. Stir.
- Add the ½ & ½ . Stir. Let this reduce and thicken for about 15 minutes, stirring intermittently.
- Once it's a nice, gravy-like thickness, pour the entirety of it over your cooked noodles. Stir.
- Add diced celery & carrots. Stir.
- Add drained peas. Stir. Surprisingly, you're not going to add the albacore just yet.
- Grab your casserole pan & spray lightly with non-stick cooking spray if desired. Alternatively, have fun cleaning up that *@% later on.
- Layer the noodle mixture into the pan.
- Place chunks of albacore from 1 can atop the noodle layer. This careful distribution keeps the bigger chunks intact, and that's an altogether good thing. (SO to Martha..thanks, Martha!)
- Cover up the tuna chunks with a layer of noodle mixture, and repeat with the second can of albacore, layering the remainder of the noodle mixture atop this construct so that most of the fish is covered. It is mo' bettah that way, trust me.
- Sprinkle shredded cheddar on top, and--you guessed it--set aside for now! Just for now...I promise...
- Head back to the stove-a-rooney, and melt a bucketload of butter, or maybe just a few pats. Once melted, remove from heat to add--->
- the Italian style breadcrumbs, and--->
- the Panko style breadcrumbs. Mix the melted butter and crumbs together...
- And top the shredded cheddar with this. So the breadcrumbs should be the final layer here, else you are sadly misdirected my fellow chef. Sadly misdirected..
- Psyche! It's easier than it sounds, of course, and once assembled, go ahead and place that bad boy into an oven preheated to 350F. Go kick it for awhile couch-side, but come back in 40 minutes because that's when it'll be done. Remove and let rest for 5 minutes or so, and what the hey. YOU go rest a bit more now, too. ;)
- Hopefully, you've talked someone else into making a side salad to go with this, and if so, once casserole & cook are rested, cut the casserole into you know, dinner-sized portions--but not the cook--and have at it. 'S good.
Add a nice salad, and you're good to go!
