Tuna Salad and Saturday Carrot Cake
June 10, 2006 at 10:01 AM
by Ashleigh
Saturday Carrot Cake - recipe from Delia SmithThis blog really is having an identity crisis. Nothing has been 'stitched in Holland' for some time. Instead we have 'baked in Holland' or more appropriately (according to Brad), 'half-baked in Holland'. Heh.
This week we had school holidays. It was pretty good. On Tuesday we stayed home and had a 'home day' where the kids played very nicely and I did boring things like bleaching the bathroom and regrouting (again).
On Wednesday we went grocery shopping in the morning and to the gym in the afternoon and they played in the kids sport centre while I learnt a new weights regime. (Ouch!)
On Thursday we visited Ikea to buy a new wardrobe and instead came home with a new 'hocker' for our living room. What do they call these in English nowadays? A stool? A pouffe? A footrest? I had a lot of difficulty getting it into the car and Seb had to sit up front in his car seat eventually - big experience for him! We had lunch there and then came home and made off for the Amsterdam Bos to try out the newly repainted Grote Kinderbad. It was fantastic to sit in the sun and watch the kids enjoying the water.
I had completely run out of inspiration for dinner until I got home and spied the overgrown balcony lettuce, the canned tuna in my store cupboard, the leftover penne pasta in the fridge and the other vegetables we had in the fridge and made our favourite tuna and pasta salad. This recipe came from my mom and it was the only salad I would eat when I was growing up. I used the foodprocessor and it makes it so simple! Here's the recipe:
Ashleigh's Favourite Tuna SaladSalad:
1 can tuna chunks in brine or oil
equivalent of one bag washed lettuce
2 ripe tomatoes
1 small shallot or red onion
1 can sweetcorn (not the creamed kind)
1 very large carrot
about half a packet of cooked pasta shapes
- Drain the tuna and sweetcorn.
- Grate the carrot. (I did this in the processor).
- Wash the lettuce leaves and roll them up, one inside the other, slice into half inch strips, or put through the slicer blade on the food processor by holding the bundled leaves tightly and packing them side by side in the feed tube of the processor. Apply gentle pressure with the pusher and use the pulse button.
- Remove the carrot and lettuce from the processor and place in a bowl with the drained sweetcorn and tuna.
- Change the processor blade to the chopping blade and chop the onion finely. Chop the tomatoes coarsely by hand. You can do the tomatoes in the processor but there is a high probabilty of ending up with salsa, which isn't what you want for this recipe!
- Add the cooked pasta to the vegetables and tuna.
- Toss thoroughly.
Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise
1/4 small onion
2 small gherkins
1/3 cup ketchup
salt and pepper to taste
- Use the chopping blade in the smallest bowl on your processor, drop the onion and gherkins through the feed tube while the machine is running
- Add the ketchup and mayonnaise and process until very thoroughly mixed.
If you don't have a processor use the 'fancy jar method' of mixing and chop your onions and gherkins very finely, place in a jar with a firmly fitting lid. Add mayonnaise and ketchup, make sure lid is tightly sealed and shake thoroughly until combined. I used to make it this way before I had a processor and I can't actually see much difference in the end result!
Now, combine the vegetables and the dressing. Toss well, try not to eat it all on the way to the table, serve and enjoy. You can leave this standing a while in the fridge, but bear in mind that the lettuce will soften.
Yesterday, I had acupuncture in the morning and my babysit kid to look after in the afternoon and we went to the swimming pool. It was fun, but stressful. Watching three kids in the water instead of two takes a lot of concentration. Last night I didn't have to cook dinner - everyone was tired, Brad had a function at work with food and so I made sandwiches for the rest of us.
Having the evening free of dinner preparation gave me time to make this wonderful carrot cake from Delia.
I made some changes to the recipe:
- I doubled it - who has a 6 inch loaf tin? All of mine are 12 inches long.
- I left out the walnuts and substituted white flour as I had no wholewheat flour.
- The icing I made as directed except I added the finely grated rind of a lemon to the mixture. I would suggest the butter for the icing be really soft as I had some lumps come up in mine that required an awful lot of beating to get them out.
It came out perfectly - moist, well risen, good texture. Yum!
And now I must tell you about how Brad is turning into my father. When given one of the sticky cinnamon buns to eat the other day he said 'why don't they have fruit in them?'. When given tuna salad, he complained about the onions, and when given carrot cake, asked where the walnuts were.
Comments
If Brad is your husband, you must leave him immediately. He obviously doesn't know how good he has it. Homemade carrot cake?! My wife sends me to buy it at the supermarket. Your recipes sound amazing. I'm ready to marry you myself.
aww Ash.. that looks really good! I'm really enjoying myself looking at what you bake!
Poor Brad! I'll eat his cake for him!
Note to self: drink coffee ~before~ reading blogs.
My eyes skipped right over the words "and Saturday" and I was left wondering how on earth a Tuna Salad Carrot Cake could possibly be edible. LOL.
Carrot cake is soo delicious. I had it for my wedding cake :)
Scary, when your DH slowly turns into your father (yes, we've also experienced the phenomenon). Your food looks great - walnuts or not! LOL. Glad that the Ikea shopping trip went well. Enjoy a lovely weekend!!
June 10, 2006 10:17 AM