I'm going to call this Tuna & Celery with Basmati Rice, for lack of a better more melodious name. This is not a recipe I found anywhere. I made it up myself last night. I'd forgotten to take out any meat from the freezer, so I opted to use a couple of cans of tuna fish from the pantry. We've been buying the Pastene tuna in oil lately as it's so much better in quality than that other stuff packed in water. The Pastene is more together and chunky, too, not disintegrating in the water like the other brands. Anyway, here goes:

Tuna & Celery with Basmati Rice




RICE (Basmati):

Prepare rice as per directions on packaging. This is BASMATI rice, which I had never used before. One cup rice, two cups water, 1 tsp. salt, 1 TBSP butter, and my addition was 1 tsp. of GARAM MASALA (the first time cooking with my Indian spices!). Basically, when the water and ingredients start to boil, lower the heat to low and cover and cook 20 minutes.

TUNA & CELERY:

3 Stalks Celery, cut up into big chunks
Leaves from celery chopped up (I had a big bunch of these from when I washed the whole celery bunch)
2 TBSP Olive oil
1 TBSP butter
2 Cans (small) Pastene Tuna in oil, drained
1 Can Cream of Celery Soup
1/2 Cup Half & Half (or cream)
1/4 Cup Milk (1%)
1/2 Cup Shredded good Mozzarella Cheese
Juice of half of a fresh lemon
1 Tsp. Dill Weed

Sautee in oil and butter the celery til softened. Add cream of celery soup, stir and cook a little, add the Half & Half, stir, add the milk to thin it out a bit. Add dill weed, stir. Keep stirring and cooking on med/low heat and then add tuna, broken up into chunks. Add the mozzarella cheese and cover so it melts. Simmer for a couple of more minutes and then at the end add the lemon juice and stir in.

(Note: I used no salt, no pepper, no garlic powder in this, which are usually my three go-to staples in the kitchen. It didn't need any! The lemon juice made this dish. I was shocked at how delicious it was. I felt like I'd been transported to a fancy restaurant or something. Wow.)

The only thing Indian I used was the Garam Masala spice in the Basmati rice, which, by the way, is now my almost-favorite rice of all time! (I still love the jasmine rice, but this one I made last night was really great.)

I cut up a few grape tomatoes to serve on the side for a pop of color with this dish, and heated up a couple of fancy dinner rolls I'd picked up at Whole Foods that were quite good, too.

So that's it. My first ever sort-of Indian meal. I can't say that Paul was over-the-moon like I was because he is basically a meat-and-potato type of guy and if he isn't sure what he's eating, he is reluctant. But I can officially say that this was one of the best dishes I've ever had.

Cheers,

Bex

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"Life is not a continuum of pleasant choices, but of inevitable problems that call for strength, determination, and hard work."

[Indian Proverb]