This week at Giant Eagle there is a great deal on Starkist Tuna and last week it was a great deal on Bumblebee Tuna. Combine them both, and you might end up with a bunch of Tuna in your stockpile.
One of my go-to meals with Tuna is Cold Tuna Noodle Salad, but that requires noodles that I currently am out of. What I do have a lot of in my stockpile is rice. So I found a recipe for tuna with Rice. It’s Creamy Tuna with Peas and my kids just loved it. The other great thing is the meal doesn’t need any canned soup – instead you make your own cream sauce.
Years past, if a recipe called for a home made cream sauce I would run the other way. I was sure I couldn’t make it. I thought for sure it would burn or just wouldn’t thicken for me. Due to my fear, I missed out on making one of my favorite childhood meals – Creamed Eggs and Ham (which I hope to share next week) for years.
A little over a year ago, I bit the bullet and made a cream sauce. Guess what I found? They are incredibly easy to make. They just require a bit of patience and a lot of stirring, and you end up with a delicious sauce.
Today’s recipe is based on the Creamed Tuna Recipe on About.com Southern Food. I kept mainly to the recipe except I doubled the whole recipe and added an extra can of tuna fish and an extra cup of peas.
Here’s what I used for Creamy Tuna with Peas that fed 6.
- 1/2 cup butter or 1 stick
- 1/2 cup flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 4 cups milk
- 3 cans tuna, drained
- 2 cups frozen peas, cooked
To make the cream sauce all you do is Melt the Butter over Medium-Low Heat. Then stir in the flour, salt and pepper. Stir and cook for about 2 minutes, or until smooth and bubbly.
Here’s were the patience comes in. You need to stir the milk in gradually. I added about 1/2 a cup each time stirring constantly. You continue to cook and stir until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble. Then add more milk and repeat until you run out of milk.
Then add the drained tuna and cooked peas. Continue heating and stirring until hot.
I served my Creamy Tuna over rice, but it would also be great on biscuits. This isn’t the best picture, but trust me it was yummy.
I stayed away from Cream Sauces for years because of fear, is there any recipe you shy away from?
