Mayo-Free Tuna Salad

Do you like tuna salad but don't like all that cholesterol in mayonnaise that's often used to make tuna salad? I love tuna salad, but I try to keep a low cholesterol diet. When I eat tuna at home, I often just sprinkle it with a little salt, pepper, and hot sauce.

Yesterday when I attended Freestone Fermentation Festival, I sat through The Veggie Queen, Jill Nussinow's demo on making a "Miso Tahini Garlic Sauce." It was a very simple recipe and very tasty over the brown rice samplers she handed out at the demo.

This morning I was trying to come up with something for the last potluck of Master Ken's Mushroom Cultivation class. I have several cans of tuna that I got when they were on sale last week. I thought about that Miso Tahini Garlic Sauce from yesterday. Some people might find it weird about making tuna salad with miso. Miso is often used as a marinade for fish in Japanese dishes, so it wasn't that far off for me to make the connection. I don't have any Tahini sauce, but Jill mentioned that peanut butter works as well. I have some unsweetened natural peanut butter from Trader Joe's. It would be the perfect substitute.

I served my Asian fusion tuna salad at the potluck, and people loved it. They couldn't really tell what I used to make it all creamy and were quite surprised to learn some of the ingredients. Here's my tuna salad recipe:

2 7oz. cans of solid white Albacore tuna in water
1/4 cup of diced white onion/or celery (adjust according to your preference)
1/4 cup of diced tomatoes
1/8 cup of sweet peas (I happen to have a lot of sweet peas in the garden right now)
1 table spoon of chopped green onion for garnish

For the sauce (makes about 1/4 cup):
2 cloves of minced or crushed garlic
1 to 2 tablespoons of miso. (Jill used mellow white miso. I used red miso. Both are good)
3-4 table spoons of unsweetened natural peanut butter (or raw tahini)
1-2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice
water or broth as needed

Mix all the sauce ingredients, adding water or broth to get the desired consistency. When the sauce is done, add it to the drained tuna, peas, diced tomatoes and onion. Mixed it all together. Sprinkle some chopped green onion on top for garnish. You can make a tuna salad sandwich or serve it as a dip with some crackers and/or bread.

Apple and Raisin Oven Pancake

 apple raisin mixture

A couple weekends ago I tried a new recipe and baked an Apple and Raisin Oven Pancake for Master Ken's class. During the class, I volunteered to cook up some shiitake mushrooms. When I returned to the classroom with a plate of sauteed shiitake, the pancake was completely devoured by my classmates. Today I baked another one so that I could have a taste. As soon as I got to the class, I cut a slice for myself. Its texture is more custard-like instead of pancake. I think this is a good candidate for candy cap mushrooms, so next time I will add some candy cap powder to it. It will then have a maple syrupy aroma.

This is a hearty brunch dish with little sugar and butter. You can experiment it with other fresh and dried fruits.

pour batter over baked apple raisin mixture

Here's the recipe:

1 large apple (or 2 smaller apples), cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup raisins (gold or regular)
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
2/3 cup milk
2/3 all purpose flour
2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
powered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 9-inch pie plate with nonstick cooking spray.

Combine apple, raisins, brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Transfer to prepared pie plate.

Bake, uncovered, 10-15 minutes or until apple begins soften. Remove from oven. Increase oven temperature to 450 degrees F.

While baking the apple, whisk eggs, milk, flour and butter in medium bowl until blended. You may want to sift the flour first so it doesn't end up with clumps. Pour batter over apple mixture.

Bake 15 minutes or until pancake is golden brown. Invert onto serving dish (optional). Sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired.

Thanksgiving Festival at California Culinary Academy

After roaming in the woods for 3 days with little sleep and hyperactivity, I came down with bronchitis. For the last 3 days, I drowned myself in organic tomato soup, pork ramen soup, and hot lemon honey tea. I also slept whenever I could with the help of Benadryl. Last night when I woke up from another nap and saw the invitation to attend Thanksgiving Festival at California Culinary Academy, I figured I was ready to go out again. I once considered enrolling in California Culinary Academy for its one year pâtisserie and baking program. I attended one of their open houses a few years ago when they were located off Civic Center BART station. Before heading out this morning, I thought that I'd double check the direction from the BART Station. I was surprised to find that the Academy has moved! It is now located at 350 Rhode Island Street, San Francisco. I decided to drive there since it is not exactly close to a BART station. It turned out that there is plenty of free all day street parking on Saturday and Sunday.

The event started out with a tour. The new facility is very modernized compare to the previous location, which was in a historical building in downtown area. After the tour, we got seated in a room for a Thanksgiving dinner cooking demonstration. As we entered the room, I got a cup of hot lemon apple cider which was perfect for my recovery from bronchitis. I wanted the recipe for that more than anything else. Chef Steve Moore demonstrated a main dish and two side dishes - Turkey Roulade with Sausage & Apple Stuffing, Sweet Potato Gratin, and Fresh Cranberry and Orange Relish.

I am not particularly into turkey, so I was more interested in the way that sweet potato gratin was made. This particular recipe uses curry powder, sour cream, and shredded extra-sharp white cheddar. I was curious what it would taste like compare to the traditional super sweet gooey Thanksgiving sweet potatoes with marshmallows. At the end of demonstration, we all got a small sample plate. You know that I ate everything. I was starving for some solid food after 3 days of soup. The sweet potato gratin worked for me. The curry powder and ground cumin gave it an Indian flair. The white cheddar gave it a semi-savory taste. It was a good balance of both sweet and savory. This is a dish that I will make because the sweet potato is ranked number one in nutrition of all vegetables by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), and the recipe is not as labor intensive as the turkey dish.

Sweet Potato Gratin

Ingredients:

4 pounds of red-skinned sweet potatoes (yams; about 3 1/4 pounds)
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sour cream, divided
3 cups shredded extra-sharp white cheddar (about 12 oz.)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook sweet potatoes in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender, about 20 minutes (do not overcook). Drain well and cool. Peel sweet potatoes; cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices.

2. Mix curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in small bowl to blend. Completely line bottom of 9-inch-diameter spring form pan with sweet potato slices, filling in any spaces with cut-up sweet potato slices. Press down slightly. Spread 1/2 cup sour cream over sweet potatoes. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon spice mixture over sour cream. Sprinkle with 1 cup cheese. Repeat twice with remaining sweet potatoes, sour cream, spice mixture, and cheese. Place pan on rimmed baking sheet; bake until cheese is melted and sweet potatoes are heated through. about 40 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 8 hours ahead. Cover and chill. If desired, reheat in 400 degrees F. oven until hot. about 15 minutes.

3. Remove pan sides from gratin; cut into wedges. Serve gratin warm or at room temperature.