I have always been a foodie. When I was really young my mom used to give me her old magazines and I can remember clipping recipes from them. I can still tell you how very delicious a slice of her lemon meringue pie was . . . yellow and transparent, covered in a seemingly mile high pile of sweet and sticky meringue . . . this remembered from lunch time when I was about 8 years old. She used to make my brother a small bowl of lemon pudding instead of pie because she didn't think pastry was good for wee ones . . . and it probably wasn't.
I have a LOT of food memories that go way, way back . . . the taste of sweet carrots stolen from a farmer's field in Germany when I was really small, maybe only three or four years old. The delicate smokiness of the thin slices of bierwurst that the German Grocer used to gift me with when I would go to the shop to pick up things for my mom . . . again I would only be about four years old if that. We left Germany when I was four and a half.
I've always been a foodie.
I even used to spend some of my precious teenage allowance on cookery books (which I still have to this day) including Fanny Farmer's Cooking School, a Jewish Cookbook (because my then boyfriend/ex husband's sister married a Jewish fella), The Farmer's Daughter Cookbook, Madame Benoit Cooks at Home, and . . . my last year in high school I began to splurge and collect the Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook Library.
A whole series of cookery books that covered everything from cheap eats to desserts to glamorous entertaining . . . or at least the 1970's version of glamorous entertaining. I still use them from time to time. There are some real gems between the covers and this recipe I am showing you here today is one of them.
It comes from the Casserole Cookbook (second edition, eight printing 1972) and is a lovely and easy to make Tuna Pie which nestles into a rice crust. If you have pouches of ready cooked rice in the cupboard, they work just fine, which makes this a great store cupboard meal. It's like a quiche in many ways. Simple. Economical. Delicious. What more could you want?
I think it's pretty wonderful that forty years later I still find great value in these old books. Money well invested I would say. The original recipe called for the use of Swiss Cheese. I replaced the Swiss with a goodly amount of strong English Cheddar and added a TBS of Dijon mustard . . . coz cheese and mustard are da bomb.
*Tuna, Cheese and Onion Pie*Serves 6Printable Recipe
A delicious cheddar, tuna and onion filling bakes in a tasty rice shell!
250g of cooked rice (2 cups)2 TBS butter, melted1/2 small onion, finely chopped1/4 tsp dried marjoram, crushedpinch salt and black pepper1 medium free range egg, lightly beaten
For the filling:200g tin of solid albacore tuna, drained and flaked (about 1 cup)3 medium free range eggs, beaten60ml double cream (1/4 cup)180ml milk (3/4 cup)1 TBS Dijon mustard1/2 small onion, finely chopped125g of strong cheddar cheese,grated (1 cup)salt and black pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 180*C.350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a 10 inch pie dish really well.
Mix together the rice, melted butter, chopped onion, marjoram, salt, pepper and egg. Press this mixture into the prepared pie plate. Flake the tuna over top of the rice. Beat together the remaining ingredients and pour this over top of the tuna. Bake in the heated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or just until a knife inserted off center comes out clean. Cut into wedges to serve.
