Inspired by the Food Network show “Chopped,” our features staffers were tasked with creating a dish incorporating tinned fish, carrots, vinegar and potato chips. Here’s what they came up with.
You, too, can take “The Seattle Times Pantry Kitchen” challenge.
Using this set of four ingredients, make a dish and tell us how successful you were:
- Canned or frozen green beans
- An egg
- Tomato paste
- Potatoes
Avoid the temptation to Google for recipes. Use your instincts. Let your fridge and memories of mom’s or your uncle’s cooking guide you.
Take a picture of your masterpiece and share your recipe with us by emailing both to food editor Stefanie Loh (sloh@seattletimes.com). Tell us what you liked and how you thought your dish turned out — get an objective family member or friend to taste-test it, perhaps — then sit back and pat yourself on the back. You’ve just completed the #ChoppedChallenge. Email us your entry by May 1, and we’ll pick several of the most interesting submissions we get in to run in the May 10 edition of The Mix.
Bethany Jean Clement, food writer/restaurant-turned-takeout critic
Corona-Lockdown Tuna-and-Potato Salad
Total Time: 20 minutes
Makes: Serves 2 for lunch or a light supper
Ingredients:
For the tuna-mayo dressing:
One 6-ounce can of tuna packed in olive oil
½ cup-plus vegetable or grapeseed oil, enough added to the tuna oil to reach ¾ cup
1 egg yolk, room temperature
1 tablespoon Champagne, white wine or rice vinegar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the tuna-potato salad:
4 baby potatoes — red, white or fingerling
One 6-ounce can of tuna packed in olive oil (oil used for your mayo)
1 small carrot, sliced into very thin rounds (a mandoline is your friend here)
A handful of snipped-up chives and/or parsley and/or fresh herbs of your choice
1 teaspoon (or 2) of finely grated Parmesan
About 5 tablespoons of your homemade tuna-mayo dressing
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Freshly ground pepper
Handful of potato chip crumbs or crushed potato chips, plus more because yesssss
Steps for the dressing:
1. Open your can of tuna and drain/squeeze all its olive oil into a measuring cup, saving the tuna for your salad (obviously, sorry!). Add enough vegetable or grapeseed oil to reach ¾ cup.
2. In a medium, nonreactive bowl, whisk the egg yolk, vinegar and salt to combine. (Julia Child says to warm the bowl in hot water then dry it just before mayo-making, and I’m not one to argue with her, but I forgot and it worked fine. So!)
3. Set the bowl on a damp kitchen towel or inside a slightly larger, heavy bowl or casserole dish to steady it. Drizzle in the oil mixture in a very thin stream, whisking constantly; if the oil is failing to incorporate at any juncture, pause your drizzling and whisk until smooth. It’ll attain the consistency of a very creamy dressing, not a jarred mayo. (Alton Brown says leaving mayo-type dressings at room temperature for an hour or two gives the acid in the vinegar time to kill any bacteria from the raw egg yolk. Science!) Any leftovers may be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to four days, but it’s doubtful they’ll last that long.
Steps for the salad:
1. Start your potatoes submerged in cold water in a small pan on high heat. Once the water just begins to boil, turn down to medium-high and boil/simmer until just soft when forked — mine took about 6 minutes. Rinse with cold water to stop the cooking, then let sit in cold water to cool. Cut into quarters or small bite-sized pieces.
2. To a medium bowl, add the drained tuna, carrot (as much as you like — it’s there for color and sweetness and a little crunch), chives/herbs, Parmesan, dressing, Dijon and sixish grinds of pepper. Mix gently to combine. Add the potato and mix even more gently until just combined. Sprinkle with potato chip bits.
3. Serve atop more chips/crackers, in a niçoise format (drizzle with extra dressing!) or straight into your mouth, with a nice crisp, dry white wine or rosé, if you partake. Dip everything else you eat/your life into your leftover dressing until it is gone. Chin up and cheers!
Sadie Davis-Suskind, “Masterchef Junior” alum/Seattle Times Kids Corner resident chef
Crispy Tuna Croquettes: With orange summer salad and malt vinegar Dijon aioli
Total Time: About 30 minutes
Makes: 4 servings of 2-3 croquettes each
Ingredients:
For the croquettes
5-ounce canned tuna
2 eggs
1 cup diced onion
½ cup of flour
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 cups thick potato chips
Salt to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
For the salad
2 small heads of frisee lettuce
2 navel oranges
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
3 tablespoons diced shallots
1⅓ cup olive oil
carrots, finely mandolined
salt and pepper to taste
For the aioli:
1¾ cup mayo
1½ tablespoon malt vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoon whole grain mustard
Salt to taste
Steps:
1. In a medium bowl, shred tuna into small chunks with your hands. Mix in eggs, onion, flour, salt, paprika, red wine vinegar and lemon juice until fully incorporated. Chill mixture in fridge for at least 15 minutes (up to an hour).
2. In a large plastic bag, pour in your potato chips. Seal the bag. With a rolling pin (or your hands), crush the chips until they are Rice Krispies-sized. Pour crumbs into a bowl and add in the panko.
3. While the mixture is in the fridge, pour an inch of vegetable oil into a large pan and heat on medium low.
4. Shape tuna mixture into disks or balls approximately 2 inches across and a half-inch in height. Roll each disk into the chip/panko mixture until evenly coated.
5. Carefully place croquettes into the oil with a spoon and cook on each side for 3 minutes. Remove cooked balls from oil and set aside and lightly sprinkle croquettes with salt.
6. For the salad: Finely zest one orange. Carefully supreme your oranges (look it up on the internet!) and set them aside in a small bowl.
7. Chop the thick white ends off the heads of frisee and gently tear apart the leaves in a bowl.
8. In a separate bowl, whisk together red wine vinegar, honey, shallots, salt and pepper, and the zest from your orange. Slowly add in your olive oil, whisking fast, until dressing is EMULSIFIED. Add in supremed oranges and frisee. Toss the salad and set aside.
9. For the aioli: Combine all ingredients until thoroughly mixed.
10. Lay a few carrots on your plate and top with a generous scoop of salad. Plate croquettes and top with aioli. Enjoy!
Stefanie Loh, features editor
The Quarantine Roll: Sweet-and-sour tuna, with cucumber, carrots and potato chip crunchies.
Total time: 1 hour
Makes: About 8 rolls
Ingredients:
3 cups Calrose sushi rice
¼ cup Japanese rice vinegar
2 cups potato chips (smashed)
2 small garlic cloves (coarsely chopped)
2 carrots (1 is sliced into long, thin strips, the other is julienned for the sauce)
1 cucumber (sliced into long, thin, strips)
8 seaweed sheets
2 cans of tuna
1 tablespoon oil (whatever kind is fine; I used avocado)
1½ tablespoon tomato paste
1½ tablespoon brown sugar
1½ teaspoon soy sauce
¼ cup vinegar
Steps:
1. Cook 3 cups of rice in rice cooker or over the stove.
2. While rice is cooking, slice the cucumber and one carrot into long, thin strips. (They’re gonna go into your sushi roll). Chop your garlic. Smash your potato chips — great step for the kiddos. If you don’t have a mortar and pestle, pour some potato chips into a pot, get an empty bottle and smash into small bits.
3. When rice is done, scoop into a large mixing bowl. Add the Japanese rice vinegar slowly, folding it into the rice with a spatula as you go. When it’s well mixed, the rice should now have the “sticky” sushi rice consistency. Stick the bowl in the fridge to cool for 15-20 minutes.
4. Open and drain your cans of tuna.
5. To make the sauce, combine vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar and tomato paste into a bowl. Mix well.
6. Heat saucepan, saute the chopped garlic until fragrant, about a minute. Throw in the julienned carrots and saute 2-3 minutes on medium heat, until slightly softened.
7. Add canned tuna to the saucepan with carrots and garlic, making sure to break it into slivers with a mixing spoon. When you have the tuna slivered up, pour in your sauce. Cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until warmed through.
8. Using the spoon to press out as much of the liquid as possible, transfer the tuna into a small bowl.
9. Now to assemble the roll! Lay a sheet of seaweed rough side up onto a bamboo sushi mat. (Pro tips: The bamboo strips should be oriented horizontally; wrapping a piece of plastic wrap over your bamboo mat at the start makes for easier clean up!) Spread a thin layer of rice over the bottom third of the mat, then add a strip each of cucumber and carrot. Spoon some tuna mixture in a horizontal line parallel to your veggie strips. Then sprinkle as much of the smashed potato chips over the concoction as you want.
10. Starting from the end closest to you, use the bamboo mat to bundle up your sushi roll. Try to keep it as tight as possible. At the end, use the mat to tighten once. Then, wet the blade of a sharp knife and cut the roll into 1-inch chunks. Enjoy!
Jackie Varriano, food writer
Sardine Stir-fry
Total time:
Makes: 3 servings
Ingredients:
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
1 large head of broccoli, chopped including stem
1 small white or yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons oil
3 eggs, boiled for 7.5 minutes and cooled
1 tins boneless, skinless sardines, packed in oil
2 teaspoons sesame oil
Juice of half a lime
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
2 cups kettle chips
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon rice wine vinegar
3 cups cooked rice (about 1 cup uncooked)
Steps:
1. Pour sardines with the oil into a small bowl. Add lime juice, oil, vinegar and mix with a fork, breaking up fillets. Taste, adjusting seasoning if needed and add any salt or pepper. Set aside.
2. Pulse kettle chips in a food processor until they start to break up. Add in vinegar and sesame oil and pulse again until chips are a bit larger than pea-sized. Pour into a nonstick pan and heat over low until crispy again, shaking every so often, about 5 minutes. Set aside.
3. Heat a saute pan over medium heat. Add oil and heat until it starts to simmer. Add onions and cook until translucent, 2-3 minutes. Add garlic and a pinch of salt. Cook another minute or 2. Add carrots and broccoli stem. Add fish sauce and soy sauce. If things look a little dry, add a tablespoon or so of water. Saute for about 5 minutes, until carrots are starting to soften. Add broccoli florets. Check for seasoning and salt or add additional soy sauce if needed.
Yasmeen Wafai, features news assistant
Potato Chip-Crusted Tuna Cake with Pickled Slaw
Total time: 60 minutes, probably less if you’re not a slow chopper like me!
Makes: 2-3 servings
Ingredients:
For the tuna cake
1 can of tuna (or other canned fish)
Diced carrots
Diced onions
Diced jalapeno (optional)
Minced garlic
Flour
1 egg
1 slice of white bread
Milk
Salt and pepper to taste
Potato chips
Lime
For the pickled slaw (adapted from Southern Living, measurements depend on how much you make)
Chopped cabbage
Sliced carrot
Vinegar
Sugar
Salt
For the mayo sauce (optional)
Mayonnaise
Chopped pickle
Salt and pepper to taste
Steps:
1. Rip the crust off the slice of bread and soak it in a bowl with some milk.
2. Dice the carrots, onions, garlic and jalapeno. How much of each depends on how much you make, but keep it light with the add-ins or the cake won’t hold.
3. Put the vegetables and tuna into a bowl and add seasonings. I used some Johnny’s seasoning salt and pepper. If using salt, be mindful of the saltiness that will come from the fish and potato chips.
4. Take the bread out of the milk and squeeze out any excess liquid.
5. Mix up the vegetables, seasoning, bread and tuna. Be sure to smash the tuna well and break up the bread evenly.
6. Form the tuna mixture into a small patty.
7. Throw some potato chips into a Ziploc bag and smash ‘em up with whatever is around you. Rolling pins are great for this. Pour crushed chips onto a plate.
8. Beat an egg and put some flour onto a plate. Dip the cake into the egg wash, flour, the egg wash again and then press into the potato chips.
9. Fry the patty in some olive oil on medium heat for 4-5 minutes.
10. Squeeze some lime on the patty and top with the mayo sauce if using. Serve with pickled slaw.
Amy Wong, features producer
Tuna Sticks with Carrot Puree
Total time: 30 minutes
Makes: 1-2 servings
Ingredients:
For the tuna sticks
1 can (5 ounces) of tuna fish
¾ cup potato chips (non-Halloween themed ones are fine)
1 egg
1 slice of bread, ripped into small pieces
For the carrot puree
6 baby carrots
1 teaspoon vinegar
½ teaspoon water
Steps:
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with foil and lightly spray with cooking oil. Apologize to your roommates and/or family members for the smells you’re about to produce.
2. Crush your potato chips by hand, or use a food processor, until they resemble breading-sized bits. Set aside.
3. Mix tuna, egg and bread together.
4. Separate tuna mixture into 6 even portions and shape into finger-shaped fish sticks.
5. Coat each tuna stick in the potato chip crumbs.
6. Evenly space on baking sheet and place in oven for 10 minutes. Flip the tuna sticks and bake for another 5 minutes.
7. While the fish sticks are in the oven, combine carrots, water and vinegar in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.
8. Plate your fish sticks and carrot puree. You can use different cookie cutters to make fun shapes out of your puree.
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