Surprising Tuna!

When it comes to cooking, there are a number of things that leave me absolutely bewildered. Artichokes for example--love, but haven't got the vaguest what to do when it comes to actually doing anything with them! Some people have tried to show me, such as other instructive types who've foolishly attempted to teach me how to drive a stick shift. I can't properly poach an egg, floating freeform in a boiling pot of water, although I am determined to figure that one out, taking small steps these days with a Calphalon poacher. Thankfully, eggplant and I are okay now.

A nicely prepared tuna sandwich, without a lot of mayo (and with a bag of chips and a crunchy garlic pickle), is one of my favorite things to have for lunch but I always hit a snag when making the tuna salad itself at home, despite a number of recipes I've tried. Recently at a friend's house, with ingredients they had, I floundered through a Lovely Tuna Lunch that I'm very pleased to call my own at last! Serves 4.

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-2 cans tuna in olive oil, drained, 1/2 can oil reserved

-1 large chopped shallot

-1 Tb chopped capers

-3/4 lb elbow macaroni, or small pasta shells, or orrechiette pasta

-4 Tb Maille mustard (my favorite, or another strong mustard such as Grey Poupon)

-3 Tb mayonaise, light or otherwise

-lemon, salt, ground pepper

Marinate shallots and capers in the reserved oil with some grinds of pepper while the pasta cooks in salted water, according to the directions on the box. Drain the cooked pasta and toss with shallot mixture. Add mustard and mayo and incorporate the tuna with salt and pepper to taste along with a few assertive sprays of fresh lemon.

Serve with your favorite pickles, chips and chilled glasses of Italian Prosecco for a Lovely Tuna Lunch!

Queen of Sheba Cake

"What on earth is a Champagne party?" I exclaimed to Baby as I read about the Queen of Sheba cake (The Hundredth Show) in Julia Child’s The French Chef Cookbook. She scribes, “The Queen of Sheba is a dessert in itself, or can be the main attraction at a tea, coffee, or Champagne party.” Who has Champagne parties these days and what’s more, what do you serve? The answer began to appear quite readily, when an extraordinarily generous friend gave Baby and me 250 grams (roughly 8 ounces) of caviar as a gift. That’s what you serve at a Champagne party! I tried my best to spoon my way through the tin, but it was evident I was going to need some help!

We made the cake of rum, almonds, and chocolate on Friday. It was definitely labor intensive and a little tricky trying it for the first time (we experienced a snag melting the chocolate, not trusting ourselves) but the results were well worth the trouble. As it baked, we started plotting out the menu and calling people to come for brunch on Sunday. For starters, we knew to dress the central caviar platter with toast points, chopped red onion, capers, lemon wedges, and blini (buckwheat pancakes). This particular blini by the way, another gift that accompanied the caviar, was news to me. Unlike the blini that I’m familiar with, that are about the size of a Sacajawea dollar and topped, these pancakes were rolled out like elegant parchment, to be gently folded and filled.

Amidst the outreach of invitations, I was suddenly struck with the memory of a Martha Stewart gathering that she had mapped out in her book Menus for Entertaining, the chapter entitled, Come for Champagne and Caviar. So, I guess I had heard of that sort of party before, but it’s an old book, and I’m older still. We plucked out the recipe for Beet Horseradish sauce, as piquant as it is pleasantly pink, with sugar snap peas for dipping. I also made the Salmon Rosettes with Dill & Mustard Sauce, on pumpernickel rounds.

Baby loves making his potato pancakes, and offered to make them (and you won’t find any better, believe me). This time he topped them with a marinated, fine dice of tuna tartare and drizzled a blend of Stonewall Kitchen wasabi cream and sour cream, and placed them on a tray over a bed of parsley. The Reader’s Digest Secrets of Better Cooking supplied Stuffed Eggs with Caviar. Spoonfuls of the most buttery, delectable miso-glazed cod were passed around, I also futzed some smoked salmon with the dill and mustard sauce and tossed in a few of the blueberries that our friend had brought. That’s right, salmon and blueberries—try it.

We freely poured both Champagne and Mionetto prosecco, with offerings of juice, such as blood orange, grapefruit and Fuji apple (and the lightest splashes of elderflower-scented St. Germain liqueur) and watched the spread disappear as our guests came and went, having shared with us this most lovely afternoon.

Et voila, mes dames et monsieurs, a perfect Champagne party well suited for a Queen of Sheba cake!

Soundtrack: Great British Bands Play the Music of Noel Coward; Evil Under the Sun soundtrack; Sinatra Sings Cole Porter; The Great American Composers – Cole Porter