Tuna Salad

By Paul Briand

My original intent for today was to post a recipe for Beer Batter Chicken. I prepped, I cooked, I took a picture, I ate. And I didn't like it very much. So it's back to the cutting board on that one.

So here's one for Tuna Salad, devised for lunch the other day as I was thinking about a way to jazz up the typical tuna/mayo combination. I also wanted to stay away from serving the tuna on bread since I was making cheeseburgers (on buns) for dinner later. Shouldn't have too much bread in one day, or so my expanding waist tells me.

Ingredients
One 5 ounce can of solid white tuna
Heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise
Teaspoon of Dijon mustard
Tablespoon of sweet pepper relish
Bread and Butter pickle spear
Black pepper
Garlic powder
Two ripe medium size tomatoes

Directions
1. Drain water from canned tuna and break tuna up in large mixing bowl;
2. Add mayonnaise, mustard, and relish;
3. Dice pickle spear and add to bowl;
4. Add pepper and garlic powder to taste and mix all ingredients together;
5. Cut the top off the tomatoes, going in at a steep angle, then slice each tomato to create wedges but don't cut through to the bottom;
6. Top each tomato with the tuna mixture. The tomato will open up but should hold together.

I'm a big fan of tomato and pickles in my tuna. It's a required addition to any tuna salad I make or order at a sub shop.

The best tuna salad I ever had was in the U.S. Capitol dining room with the late U.S. Rep. Nicholas Mavroules of Massachusetts in the early 1980s. It was served in a whole tomato like I'm suggesting here. I don't recall what it was that made it so great, but I have a distinct memory that it remains the best tuna salad I've ever eaten.