Paleo Tuna/Sardine Casserole

I did not grow up eating tuna casserole, but I loved tuna melts and creamed tuna on toast. I have not thought about either of those things in a long time, but they must be in there somewhere because I felt compelled to make this casserole dish. I think the idea of a creamy pasta-y dish of sorts sounded appealing as we turn back to snow and rain. And, it totally hit the spot! It was good - in a creamed tuna on toast kinda way. And with tasty ingredients that I want to eat (as opposed to a can of cream of mushroom soup!)

I used this post for inspiration, but used spaghetti squash rather than zucchini noodles (which is way less fussy because you do not need to squeeze out excess water), and added pickles and butter, and a little parmesan and almond flour for a crunchy top. I mean, what is not to like here? Also, I used sardines because they are more sustainably fished than tuna, and are lower on the food chain so you get less of the weird chemicals hanging out in our oceans. Using the squash did mean things looked more monochromatic, but that seems in keeping with the more bland origins of this dish!

For this recipe, you need an already cooked spaghetti squash: cut squash in half lengthwise and scoop out the center seeds. Brush a tsp of olive oil on each squash half, and place open side down on a rimmed baking tray. Add 1/4 c or so of water to the pan, and bake for 30 minutes in a 350 degree oven. The squash is done when you can easily pierce a fork into the "meat" of the squash. Use a fork to scrape and pull the "noodles" from each half - they will come easily.

Sardine Casserole - 2 large servings or 4 small ones:

• 1 medium cooked spaghetti squash - you will not use it all
• 1/2 med red onion
• 1-2 cloves garlic
• 1-2 celery stalks (I did not have any, but that would be good here)
• 3 T butter
• 1 T coconut flour
• 1/4 c coconut milk/cream/almond milk, etc
• salt/papper/chili flakes to taste
  
• 8 oz sardines (2 tins) or tuna
• 2 jalapenos, finely chopped
• 2 pickle spears, finely chopped (or olives)
• 1/3 c Mayo (homemade)
• 1 T prepared mustard
• salt and pepper
• 1 T almond flour (opt)
  
• 1-2 T parmesan cheese (opt)
  
• fresh parsley to garnish

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a pie pan or cast iron skillet.

2. Prep "noodles": melt 1 T of the butter in a large skillet and add onion (and celery if using). Saute until soft, 5-8 minutes. Add garlic and saute another minute. Add coconut flour and remaining 2 T butter and stir to make a thicker onion roux mixture. Add coconut milk/cream/milk to thin the roux and stir some more. Mix the onion/milk/flour mixture with spaghetti squash "noodles" (I used just over half of my cooked squash), salt, pepper and chili flakes so that squash is coated in the roux and seasoning.

3. Make "tuna" salad: Combine sardines or tuna, jalapenos, pickle/olives, mayo, mustard, salt and pepper in a bowl until well mixed. 

4. Add tuna salad to noodle mix, and combine well. Pour the entire mixture into the pie plate/cast iron skillet. Top with parmesan cheese if using. (You will add almond flour at the end.) Bake for 15-20 minutes until everything is hot and the top is starting to brown. Sprinkle almond flour on the top, and then broil the casserole for another few minutes to brown the top. Once crispy, remove from broiler, top with fresh parsley and serve.

Curry Sardine (or tuna) Salad

It was 60 degrees out today! When I was out on my walk I laid on the golf course and felt like I was getting a hug from the new green grasses that are coming up in that weird-golf-course-grass kind of way. Oh sweet spring! The nice weather inspired me to make a "warm weather dinner," aka: cold dinner.

I made this up and it was delicious. It is a convenient meal with stuff you might have around. Don't sweat it if you don't have red pepper or parsley; it will still be good. I don't buy tuna anymore because I feel better about eating smaller fish. Tuna are over-fished, and smaller fish have less mercury and other heavy metals in them. I most often buy sardines that have skins and bones in them (that is all good for you!), but I had a few tins without, which I used this time for a smoother/less crunchy salad. You can pick your preference.

Curry Sardine Salad
1 tin sardines in olive oil
1/4 c (homemade) mayo (or a little more)
squirt of dijon mustard
2 T minced red onion
1 celery rib, diced small
2-3 T red pepper, diced small
2 T chopped fresh parsley
1+ tsp curry powder (to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
handful of almonds, chopped
*raisins or currents would also be good in here if you like that kind of thing
**I also put in some sauerkraut and a squeeze of lemon

Mix all ingredients together. Serve with salad greens, toast, crackers, etc. Yum.
(To get fancy, which I did, toast your almonds prior to chopping over med heat in a heavy skillet.)

Crispy Sardines

I've been reading fiendishly this week (N.K. Jemisin's Dreamblood duology and The Circle by Dave Eggers) - including staying up too late and then reading during meals. Dystopias - - they really suck me in! I also have been contemplating going to WisCon, the feminist sci-fi conference, this spring. So that inspired lots of internet searching and findings of new authors and books to read. A wee bit dorky, but a nice way to spend part of my Friday morning.

I've got heaps of library books right now, half of which cannot be renewed because they have waiting lists, so it is taking some effort to get through them before they are due back. One of them is Well Fed 2 - the latest cookbook from one of my fave paleo bloggers. Thus far I give it a 4 star rating - really good recipes that I would make anytime, some of which include things I already have at home. I appreciate that it isn't a "treat" sort of cookbook, and instead stays pretty true to Whole30 style eating, without added sweeteners and stuff. The recipe I have made twice already is her "Pan Fried Sardines." She uses arrowroot powder - which I had never tried - and it creates a really awesome, delicate frying substance. I've pretty much always just used coconut flour, which is heavier, with a stronger coconut taste, and (too) absorbent. I'm giving the arrowroot powder 2 thumbs up - I want to try it with liver too (she has a recipe for liver fried in coconut flour and arrowroot that looks great).

Her recipe has you marinate sardines in lemon, garlic and parsley, but I always have some of the Wild Planet lemon sardines around, so skipped that step to make the recipe even easier/faster.

Crispy Sardines (modified from Well Fed 2)
serves 1
1 tin sardines packed in olive oil with lemon
1 (heaping) T arrowroot powder
1/4 tsp cumin
pinch cayenne
pinch paprika
couple pinches salt and pepper
2 T coconut oil/lard for frying
parsley (opt)

1. Mix arrowroot, spices, and salt and pepper in a bowl. Carefully roll the sardines in the flour-y mixture - the sardines are fragile, and I try to let any excess olive oil drip off before flouring.
2. Heat fat/coconut oil in a cast iron pan. When it is hot, fry the sardines a couple of minutes on each side, until crisp and browned. 
3. Remove from pan and eat as is, or on a simple salad of shredded lettuce/carrots/cabbage with the olive oil/lemon marinade from the sardines and a splash of vinegar. Sprinkle minced parsley on top. The sardines are also great with some homemade mayo.

Garden Veggie Salad with Sardines

This week has been fairly uneventful on the food front - my daily routine is to get home from work, eat dinner, go for a walk, and watch some Lynx basketball before getting into bed and reading a bit. Except sometimes eating dinner and watching basketball overlap a little, which I don't actually like doing but is tempting anyway - it's a slippery slope if I am waiting for something to cook and just want to see the start of a game or something. I've become a super Lynx fan lately - I watch all of our games of course (mostly at home via "Live Access" where you can watch every WNBA game for $15 a year or some such), but I also started watching some of the other teams - especially the good ones who "we" will likely play in the coming weeks in the play offs. I'm finding it all very exciting.

The Lynx really have nothing to do with today's salad - which has everything to do with the current garden haul. It is a new time of bounty because the beets and carrots are finally sweet and ready to eat. And they are gorgeous! The carrots especially with the multi-color variety.

Each weekend I spend a day at the northside homestead watering and harvesting and maybe pickling or freezing or pesto-ing. And then I pack up a big haul of veggies to bring home and eat throughout the week. Most all of them made an appearance in today's salad: beets, carrots, green beans, cukes, arugula, and tomatoes, plus some dill and parsley. 

Garden Veggie Salad with Sardines: Assemble whatever veggies you've got!

Handful arugula
1/2 carrot, sliced
1/2 cucumber, sliced
Cherry tomatoes, halved
1 Sliced boiled beet*
Blanched green beans**
Fresh herbs: dill, parsley
Tin sardines
Dressing: olive oil from sardines, sherry vinegar, mustard, mayo (opt), salt, pepper.

*Beets: I've been boiling my beets in one batch each week so that I can have sliced beets whenever I want. They are great in so many ways, or plain with a little vinegar, olive oil, and salt.Bring pot of water to a boil. Put in beets (skin on) and boil for 30-45 minutes, depending on size, until tender. Remove and chill in cold water; remove beet skin with thumb.
**Green Beans: Add green beans to boiling water for 1-2 minutes; remove and cool in cold water.

Cucumber Sardine Boats

Happy over-the-hump of the heat wave! Earlier this week I looks at the temps, and seeing all those hot red sun images on the 7-day-forecast (they are gone now) inspired me to think about going up north for the weekend. There is a high of 75 along northern Lake Superior (think Beaver Bay and Grand Marais) - but still hot in Ely and inland from the Lake. So I think My Charming Companion and I are going to try a spontaneous mini Superior Hiking Trail trip for a couple of days. I have never hiked the trail, so this seems a very mild introduction to see how it goes. I haven't actually been hiking in close to 10 years, and my backpack was quite cobwebby when I pulled it out of the garage. But 2 days!? Why not.

I bought a roasted chicken so that I could just eat that (cold) all week rather than cook. And I've had smoothies and cobb salads (with cucumbers instead of cheese & avocado), lots of pickles, and sardine salad boats - aka, sardine salad in a cucumber. They are easy to eat, sort of akin to an open faced sandwich, and perfect on a 95 degree day. You could also do the filling in small cucumbers for a festive appetizer or potluck sort of item. You know - anything easily picked up and eaten makes a good candidate for a potluck.

Wild Planet sardines are on sale at the Co-ops again - only $2 each (I think only til Sept though). I bought more than a case full because it seems handy to have these on hand. I started using sardines in place of canned tuna for "tuna" salad just because sardines are more sustainable and are so good for you. Sardine salad is a little more wet - though I imagine that is partly because I get them packed in oil as opposed to the water packed tuna.

Cucumber Sardine Boat
2-4 cucumbers (depending on their size), sliced in half, seeds removed
One tin sardines
2 T Mayo
2 T Fresh herbs: I used Dill and Parsley, chopped
Either pickles or olives, chopped
2 T red onion, minced
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper to taste
2 T Toasted pistachios, chopped

Mix everything but the pistachios (and cucumbers, obviously!) in a bowl. Spoon into hollowed/de-seeded cucumber "boats" and sprinkle with pistachios.

To-go cucumber boats!

Beet and Sardine salad

My co-worker is not a beet eater and every year, to my delight, she brings me the beets from her CSA. My garden beets are just a bit slow (they aren't in the sunniest garden spot) and aren't quite ready yet, so these were a treat. While perusing the beet section in Tender, I came across a recipe for beets and marinated mackerel. I used it as inspiration to make something simpler - with sardines and a bit of arugula added in. Nigel Slater says that oily fish (sardines, mackerel and herring) are a perfect accompaniment to beets, and based on this dish I agree!

Spring beets are so nice and small, you can boil them on the stove top and they are ready in 20-30 minutes. They peel easily after they cool - just use your thumbs and fingers to press off the beet skin and watch your fingers turn pink. Once the beets are made, this is a super quick salad. I ended up using some of my pickled onions, but regular ones would work too. I also had purchased a tin of Bela sardines (the Wedge carries them) - usually I get the Wild Planet ones - and wanted to try them for a taste comparison. (The Bela's are the fave from Nom Nom Paleo.) They definitely look different than the Wild Planet sardines, and they tasted delicious. I don't know that I could tell a difference by taste alone between the two products though, and the Bela's cost a bit more for fewer ounces.

Beet and Sardine Salad
3 small beets, cooked/boiled and peeled
handful arugula, chopped
fresh dill, chopped
pickled (or regular red onions), sliced thin
one tin sardines packed in lemon olive oil
juice of half lemon
1 t dijon mustard
salt and pepper

Slice beets thickly and arrange on a plate over arugula. Remove sardines from tin, reserving olive oil, and lay sardines and onions on salad. Mix sardine olive oil, lemon juice, dill, mustard and salt and pepper together and pour over salad.

This tasted really good - the beets were sweet and almost creamy tasting with the sardines. I also think you could forgo the arugula entirely. It wasn't necessary, though I enjoyed it as a surface with which to eat more of the dressing on. Next time, I will go straight up beets and no lettuce - the simplicity is appealing to really taste the strong flavors.

Bacon wrapped Sardines

My longest standing memory of sardines is from the movie/play "Noises Off!" In the film version it is Carol Burnett who keeps getting to talk about the sardines, but really all of the characters do and I remember finding the whole thing hysterical when I was young. I think it was the way Carol Burnett said sardines, or just the way the sardines became like a character in the whole show.

Anyway - I had never actually had sardines until a year or two ago when I ate them copiously with rice, and then on cucumber slices after I stopped eating grains. My co-workers think it is an odd lunch, but sardines make Mark's Daily Apple list of top foods that are chock full of good stuff for you. They fall in the category of "Tiny fish with heads and guts" - though the brand I buy (and that is currently on sale for $2 each at the co-ops) is Wild Planet, and the heads are no longer on the fish. Alas. But you still get the guts and all the Omega 3's and algae and all that.

In the winter I often like to eat lunches that are warm or hot - so I was excited to stumble upon this bacon wrapper idea for the sardines. It's also kind of festive, you could make these as a party appetizer if you were so inclined. I have thought about stuffing a little water chestnut (a la Rumaki - which is liver and water chestnut wrapped in bacon) inside too, but have not tried it yet. This is such a good weekend lunch with a little soup or salad.

I get the Beeler bacon ends because they are cheaper, but each package inevitably includes some strips of bacon that are thin or too fat, and also a bunch of shorter bits. I find the "ends" work well to wrap the sardines in because they tend to be smaller, but regular slices would work too. You probably will need to cut them in half though.

Just wrap a bacon slice around each sardine - you can keep it in place with a toothpick, but I just wrap them up and tuck the bacon end under the sardine. Bake on a cookie sheet for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees, until bacon is crispy. Dip them in homemade mayo if you want, or eat them as is!

Paleo Pasta with Sardines

I have had a can of sardines in the pantry for a couple months and finally figured out a way to use them.  It was so good that I am kicking myself for not trying it sooner.  The recipe was inspired by An Everlasting Meal by Tamar Adler.  Reading the book was inspired by Megan, so thank you for the good recommendation.  I learned so much about stretching food into multiple meals, which is an art in itself.  I do so much cooking these days and it is so great to learn how to stretch the food and not let anything go to waste.  

I love using sardines because they are wonderfully healthy little fish, and inexpensive.  They have omega 3s and are low in mercury, which is always a concern these days when eating fish.  

Ingredients: 

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 onion, sliced

1 clove garlic, sliced

1 can good olive oil packed sardines

1 pound spaghetti (I substituted zucchini noodles)

sea salt

1 bunch parsley, leaves picked and roughly chopped

optional: dried chili flakes

Heat olive oil in a deep frying pan big enough to hold the noodles.  Once the oil is warm, add the onion and garlic and cook until it's soft but not completely tender, 5 to 10 minutes.  Add the sardines and their olive oil and let them fry in the pan, breaking them up with your spoon.  Add the zucchini noodles and cook another minute until the noodles have softened.  Toss in the parsley and chili flakes, if you are using them, at the last minute.

Enjoy!