Not My Father's Tuna

My dad is not from the cooks and one of the few memories I have of him cooking is when he made us lunch on the weekends. It was then he would prepare regular old tuna sandwiches on toast. This meant Bumble Bee White Albacore, with celery and Hellmann's Mayonnaise.

Back in the Seventies, tuna was a mainstay of our diets. I am sure we ate it at least once a week, if not more. In fact it was part of one of my all time favorite dishes, tuna casserole, but that story is for another day.

I recall those innocent tuna days of yesteryear since now I rarely eat it. Which is a shame since I really love tuna but feel a tremendous guilt about eating it. I certainly don't want to play a part in depleting the wild tuna population, nor do I wish to regularly ingest mercury during mealtime (or anytime). And so I save tuna for rare occasions. Today was one of them.

Izzy and I shared a can of "Wild Pole- Caught Tuna" (supposedly less toxic than others) for lunch. I prepared it with chopped baby celery from my csa share, orange zest, a few squeezes of orange juice, mayo and salt and pepper.

I highly recommend adding citrus zest and juice to canned tuna. It refreshes the fish, something mayonnaise alone, cannot do. The sandwich I made may not have been my father's tuna but it reminded me of those tuna days anyway.