“I refuse to believe that trading recipes is silly.
Tuna fish casserole is at least as real as
corporate stock.”

^{-Barbara Grizzuti Harrison}

This quickly made and easy ‘pie’ with its crushed crisp ‘pastry’ goes very well with de-seeded green pepper, cut into strips, and fried in hot olive oil with smoked salt.

The filling will freeze (although use fresh peas, and prawns which have not been frozen), but the crisp ‘pastry’ is best done, or added, just before cooking for eating.

An alternative to the tinned tuna and prawns would be leftover chicken and pitted black olives.

If you really need more carbohydrate it also goes well with baked potatoes. What really is essential however is the slightly more acid than usual dressed green salad.

Recipe for tuna pie with ‘crisp’ pastry

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 x 200g/8 oz tin tuna chunks in oil (preferably olive)
• handful of cooked prawns
• 260g/9 oz tin sweetcorn
• 150g/5 oz frozen peas
• 295g Campbell’s condensed cream of chicken soup
• ½ tsp curry powder
• salt and pepper
• 400g tin of plum tomatoes (Lidl is best – see larder for an explanation as to why)
• ¾ cup/85g/4 oz grated cheese
• 1 tsp salt and a good pinch of Urfa pepper (or a very small amount of dried crushed chillies)
• 150g/5 oz pack of good quality crisps – Tyrell’s smoked paprika would be good (if you can’t find these, use plain and add your own paprika)
• green salad, made with a slightly more acid dressing than usual, possibly scattered with capers

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180° (use aga baking oven).
2. Pour the drained tuna, sweetcorn, peas , curry powder and the soup into an oven proof casserole dish and stir.
3. Break up the tomatoes with a fork and cover the tuna mixture.
4. Break up the crisps by putting in a plastic freezer bag and attacking with a rolling pin.
5. Mix in (in the bag to save washing up) the grated cheddar (or whatever cheese you might be needing to use up).
6. Cover with the crisp mixture and cook for half an hour.