Bake with potential

I went into the kitchen this evening with the intention of making tuna rice bake (p107). It's the sort of recipe that's designed for using up leftover rice: except that since I seldom have leftover rice, I had to begin by cooking some up specially.


That step was accomplished without difficulty; the next proved difficult when I realised I didn't have any onions. I'd checked the recipe when I went to the supermarket to get the tuna, but overlooked the fact that I'd used up all my onions making soup the other day. Sigh.. well, it won't be much good without onion: wrap up; get in car; drive to supermarket for 30c onion purchase; return to kitchen.

With all ingredients now on hand, I could make a start on the sauce, cooking onion, celery and garlic in a pan before stirring in flour and gradually adding milk. When the sauce thickened, I took the pan off the heat and beat in egg and grated cheese. The white sauce turned yellow from the yolk and became almost like an omelet in appearance.


The next step was to season, and then add tuna. The recipe indicates a 425g can, which seems like an awfully large can of tuna to me. I used a standard 190g can for my half-recipe, and that was plenty.


Finally, I stirred in the rice and spooned the mixture into an oven dish. After 20 minutes in the oven, the tuna rice bake had gone golden on top, and was ready to eat. (Well, ok: I was also supposed to garnish the top with parsley, but couldn't be bothered going out to the garden in the cold just for a garnish).

Tuna rice bake might not be the most spectacular meal you'll ever eat - it's pretty ordinary sort of fare. Still, it's has quite a pleasant savoury flavour - and it's not too fishy. If you added some extra vege you'd have a more balanced meal. In fact, I think this recipe could be quite versatile as a 'throw in whatever you've got' kind of meal. Especially if what you've got happens to include leftover rice!