Tuna Mornay
My Mum’s Tuna Mornay recipe is one of my comfort foods. My Dad won’t eat seafood, so this was a special treat meal, when Dad wasn’t home for dinner (very rare) or when my parents were going out. It’s a healthy dinner, with peas (which I hate!) and corn, but still one of my favourites. It was a recipe that I made sure came with me when I moved out of home. It takes a little bit of effort to make the white sauce, but in the end, doesn’t take much longer to prepare than say a pasta, and it only uses pantry and freezer staples so is a great “What’s for dinner?” meal.
Ingredients
1 large tin Tuna (drained and broken up into pieces with a fork)
2 tablespoons Plain Flour
1 1/2 tablespoons Butter
1 large tin Creamed Corn
1 1/2 cups frozen Peas
1 cup Milk
Good squeeze of Lemon Juice
1 tablespoon Grated Cheese
Breadcrumbs
Procedure
1. Preheat oven to 180°C/360°F.
2. Cook the peas. I usually microwave them for 3 minutes with a splash of water. You could also steam or boil the peas for a few minutes.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat. Mix in the flour to form a paste.
4. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring continuously (I use a whisk to make sure no lumps form), allowing the mixture to thicken before adding more milk. (It also works if you dump all the milk in at once, but it takes longer to thicken and you’ll spend more time at the stove!). It should be thick enough to leave “tracks” in the sauce as you stir (you can just see them at the bottom of this picture).
(I know, it doesn’t look pretty!)
7. Place in oven until cheese is golden brown. Sometimes I let it go really brown and crunchy, and other times, leave it a bit more chewy.
This takes me about 30 minutes to prepare, and then 20-30 minutes in the oven. This serves 3-4 people, and is great served with fresh bread or garlic bread. Sometimes Mum would put it into individual ramekins before she put it in the oven, rather than one big dish.
What are your comfort foods? What special dinners take you back to your childhood?
My comfort foods are definitely things from my childhood – favourite things my mum would make when I was growing up. It is impossible to top my mum’s chicken soup, for example!
Increasingly as I’m keeping my own house and cooking for my husband, I have flashbacks of stuff I used to eat as a kid and haven’t thought about for years, usually due to a long absence caused by the vegetarian phase I went through in my teens to twenties! Once the flashback hits, though, I can’t think of anything else and I simply must replicate these things from my past, like curried prawns (the Australian way, with curry powder, not the more gourmet way we know these days!) and casseroles and fish pie and lamb’s fry… Most recently I was fixated on Asparagus Mornay. Comfort food is usually something I remember from my youth 🙂
Hi, by the way! Have just found your blog (via Spring Top Week – love your Autumn Spring Top).
xx
http://www.whiskandwhimsy.blogspot.com
When making a white sauce I find it easiest to mix the flour and milk together in a jar while melting the butter. Then pour in the pan and stir as needed. Fewer lumps(at least for me) and lots less stirring. Can’t remember where I read this tip but it really simplifies the process.
Have just come across your site and am delighted with the Tuna recipie. Tuna can be very bland but the combination of your ingredients make it look very tasty. Will try it this week. Thank you.