Whole Tuna Salad

No can openers were used in the making of this post.

I recall one particularly horrifying episode of Molto Mario on the Food Network where Chef Batali took a cinder-block sized brick of sushi-grade ahi tuna, boiled the crap out of it, and put it in a jar filled with olive oil. I sat, distraught and disgusted, at the terrible waste of such a huge, expensive, gorgeous chunk of meat. He said he was creating authentic canned tuna. I think he was committing an atrocity.

I'm always amazed at the high-end stuff available at Costco. My newest find was a bag of vacuum-packed ahi tuna fillets. They're relatively inexpensive, and have a shelf life of almost a year, which is perfect because I'm the only tuna eater in the house. We don't exactly plow through whole tuna steaks round here.

I ransacked my brain for uses for my newfound bounty, and I came up rather dry. It seems like every time I get tuna it's in the guise of some kind of seared steak. Don't get me wrong, I love a good tuna steak as much as the next guy, but frankly it makes for boring blog posts. So I boiled the crap out of it.

Tuna salad was my goal. No, not the kind you get from bad cafeterias or out of a vending machine. I wanted the real stuff, with big tuna chunks and real veggies and bacon. And I wanted it light.

I set to work prepping the dressing. I found a tip on the internet to substitute yogurt for most of the mayo. From what I found, a 2:1 ratio of yogurt to mayo wouldn't taste too funky. I also added seasonings (brown mustard, basil and cayenne pepper) to taste.

Next came tuna prep. I was scared that boiling would tear the delicate meat apart, and I wanted whole chunks in my salad. Poaching is like playing chicken with a boil, especially without the safety net of a thermometer. Fortunately for us, tuna cooks incredibly fast so it doesn't require much babysitting. I just sliced the steaks into 1/2" slices, plopped them in a pot with enough water to cover, and heated the pot until the water had just barely started to boil. By that time, the steaks were done. If you cut yours in half and they aren't, just return them to the pot and wait a bit.

Finally I mixed everything together, seasoned with salt and pepper to taste, and refrigerated the salad for a couple of hours until everything was chilled and the flavors mixed.

My wife though the mixture was a little dry, but I personally prefer "mayo salads" to be lighter on the mayo and heavier on the meats and veggies. Sure, my salad crumbles when stacked, but you can definitely taste the $6 in tuna you dumped in it.

One final note - I know many don't want to make this recipe using whole tuna. In that case, you can substitute 4-5 cans of chunk light tuna (packed in water, drained) for the tuna steaks. As with all meat salads, I'd add 3-4 cans, taste it, and add more if necessary.

Whole Tuna Salad

5 tbsp. Fat Free Plain Yogurt
2.5 tbsp. Low Fat Mayo
1/2 tbsp. Spicy Mustard
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Dried Basil
1/4 to 1/2 tsp. Cayenne Pepper

1 lb. Ahi Tuna, sliced into 1/2" fillets
1 med Onion, diced finely
1 cup Celery, diced finely
4 strips Turkey Bacon, cooked and chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste

Mix first 5 ingredients to make dressing, and let sit in fridge to chill while preparing the main ingredients.

Poach the tuna in heavily salted water for 6-10 minutes, or until cooked through. Do not overcook. Drain and gently cool with cold water. Chop tuna into 1/2" chunks and toss with remaining ingredients.

Using a rubber spatula, fold in dressing (you don't want to destroy those huge chunks). Let sit in the refrigerator until cold and until flavors have blended.

The whole batch is 20 pts. and makes approximately 5 cups.

Shitake Miso Noodle Bowl

Despite my best efforts, I sometimes get tired of eating the same old stuff. Driving home recently, pondering yet another dinner of grilled chicken salads or turkey chili, I couldn't help but think that something - anything - different would have be great. I swerved into the parking lot of my local supermarket to escape.

Roaming the produce section, I spotted a box of shitake mushrooms. Hmm. My mind ran through the contents of my pantry (you have your food supply memorized, don't you?) and picked upon two items I'd managed to stock in my cupboard.

The first was a package of organic somen noodles I'd picked up on a recent trip to Cost Plus (a world food and housewares store). I don't normally frequent that store, but I was trying not to have to sit in Michaels for 45 minutes while Jenny was looking at the newest scrapbooking papers and scissors.

The other was two packages of instant miso soup mix. My friend Margaret had introduced me to the bean-paste soup at a dinner party, and I was instantly hooked. I now keep the soup around because it's a great 1 point snack for when I need something warm and tasty. I get mine at a local Japanese food store, but I'm sure you can find similar mixes at large grocery or specialty food store. It comes in two foil pouches, one for the bean paste and the other for dried scallions and other chunky bits.

Armed with my main flavors and some fresh ingredients, I proceeded home and went to work.

Soon other ingredients made their way to the table. I added some fresh scallions to replace the dried ones in the miso flavor packets and some boneless, skinless chicken chunks to add something to bite into. Unlike the tasters on Iron Chef, I don't have a palatte that can truly appreciate the very subtle flavors in pure Japanese cooking. My tastebuds have been killed by too much wasabi.

I actually broke out the olive oil in an appreciable quantity to saute the chicken and mushrooms. This would be an incredible dish all its own, perhaps served on a bed of steaming white rice. Shitake mushrooms have so much flavor compared to the white mushrooms I usually buy, and sauteeing them just brings out the flavor. Just to make sure the sautee was done, I ate 3-4 mushrooms straight from the pan.

Health wise, this is a pretty awesome meal. Sure, it's high in points (for most people), but that's only because I made it that way. You could leave out the chicken, or miso, and drop a few points. Or you could just plan ahead and enjoy it in all its glory...

Shitake Miso Noodle Bowl

3.5 oz. Shitake Mushrooms, halved or quartered
3.5 oz. Somen Noodles
2 pkgs. Miso Soup Mix
3/4 lb. Boneless, Skinless Chicken, roughly chopped
Handful Scallions, chopped
2 Baby Carrots, shaved with a potato peeler
1 tbsp. Olive Oil
Soy Sauce to taste

Boil noodles. Heat water for miso soup per package directions.

Heat 1 tsp. of oil in a non-stick skillet over high heat until hot, dump in chicken and sautee until about half done. Drizzle soy sauce and stir to coat. You don't want a ton, just enough to cover the chicken with a little liquid boiling in the pan.

In a separate bowl, toss the shrooms in the remaining oil and add to saute. Cook until remaining sauce is incorporated and shrooms give off nutty aroma.

Put pasta in bowl, surround with sauteed shrooms and chicken, mix miso and pour over pasta. Garnish with onions and carrots.

Serves 2, 10 pts. per serving.

Salame Gnocchetti

If I were cast upon a deserted island with but one animal to survive upon, I'd pass the cow and chicken in favor of my favorite domesticated animal, the pig. The porcine universe has so many bright stars, that it'd take years to count their numbers. Sausage. Bacon. Prosciutto. Pork Chops. BBQ. Salame...

I haven't cooked much with salame. Until recently, I'd just thought of it as a fatty lunch meat packaged with sliced ham and olive loaf. That is, until a visit to Jungle Jim's amazing market in Cincinnati brought me in contact with the artisanal salames of Columbus Salame Co, specifically their Artisan Cacciatore.

This salame is of exquisite texture, firm without being hard and with incredibly coarse texture (you can really get a sense of this if you expand the picture above) like I've never seen in my limited exposure to cured meats. When cut, the salame glistens gloriously in the light.

Now this isn't standard Weight Watchers fare. But I was determined to see if I could incorporate its big time flavor into an everyday dish without having to loosen my belt a notch or two.

It just so happens that during the same visit to Jungle Jim's I found a perfect partner in crime. I've written about Cucina Viva gnocchi before on this blog. Months later, it is still a favorite in our household for a quick weeknight dinner. I found a new version of our semi-light fix in a smaller form, dubbed "Gnocchetti". These are about 1/2 to 1/3 the size of the standard form and cook amazingly fast (just 2-3 minutes in boiling water). I just tossed the cooked gnocchetti with the salame, red peppers and onions to create a quick dinner for two, with enough left over for lunch the next day. The salame has so much flavor in it that I omitted all the salt, pepper and other herbs and simply garnished the dish with a bit of fresh basil and shredded Parmesan cheese.

The dish was awesome, filling and full of flavor without taking a huge bite out of my allowed points goal for the day. Sadly, I probably wouldn't use the same salame for this recipe. The salame used was a bit hard and chewy and didn't match well with the gnocchetti, texture wise. I'd substitute pancetta or shredded prosciutto for a better mouthfeel. I think I'll leave the delicious salames for wine and cheese parties. The texture and flavor are disrupted too much when cooked.

Salame Gnocchetti

4 oz. Salame, diced (Prosciutto or Pancetta can be substituted)
1 pkg. Cucina Viva Gnocchetti
1 small Onion, diced
2/3 Red Pepper, diced
1 oz. Parmesan Cheese
Fresh Basil as desired

Bring pasta water to a boil. You can prepare the other ingredients while the water is heating.

In a hot skillet, render salame until fragrant and until oils start to release from meat (if you're using a lower-fat meat, I'd add just a bit of olive oil). Remove meat from pan, reserving remaining fat. In the same pan, saute onions and peppers over medium high heat until the onions are translucent and the peppers are soft.

After completing the saute, add the gnocchetti to the boiling water and cook until gnocchetti float to the top. Skim off pasta and toss thoroughly with the onions, meat and peppers. Top with freshly chopped basil and shredded Parmesan cheese.

Makes 3 servings, 9 pts. per serving as prepared (12 pts. for 4 oz. of Columbus Cacciatore). Adjust accordingly for different meats.