Tuna Melt
Of course, one very good thing to do with homemade english muffins is to make sandwiches. And one very good sandwich to make, in particular, is a tuna melt.
I should explain something here: I’m particular about my tuna melts. I don’t want them to be unbalanced, and I want my cheese to be assertive, yet not overpowering. Overall, as with any other dish, I want the ingredients to harmonize nicely in every bite I take, so that the full-on choral blast echoes throughout my mouth.
I like a good mixture of textures, too. You could, of course, make this with fresh (cooked) tuna, as well. But here’s what I usually like to do…
Tuna Salad
INGREDIENTS
- 1 can of your favorite tuna, drained well. 1
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 2 stalks of celery, chopped fine
- 3 tbsp mayonnaise (reduced fat is fine), plus more as needed; can also substitute 1/2 mayo and 1/2 ricotta cheese if you like, which is also delightful
- Salt and pepper TT
- 1 tbsp fresh parsley, or basil, or other beautiful fresh herbs, chopped fine (optional)
PREPARATION
Stir all ingredients together. Taste. Adjust seasonings as necessary until satisfaction with finished product is reached. Serves two very hungry people with open-faced sandwiches with both halves slathered in salad, or four moderately hungry people. Or two moderately hungry people who want leftovers for tomorrow’s lunch.
To make a tuna melt, slather your muffin halves (or bread) with enough tuna salad to cover. If you like it thick, lay it on thick. If not, don’t. Top with cheese of your choice.2 Lay aluminum foil across your broiler pan and place sandwiches on the foil. Stick under the broiler in your oven and keep an eye on it; the cheese will melt, bubble, and begin to brown quite quickly, and you’ll be very sad if these burn. Remove from oven when the cheese has melted and they’ve browned to your liking. Serve immediately.
- If you don’t have a favorite, choose a good-quality one packed in water. Not oil. I’m not responsible for what may happen if you choose one packed in oil. [↩]
- I like a nice sharp cheddar, or colby jack, or gruyere (which is cheating, as it’s nearly perfect any time). Or smoked gouda. I also like to shred the cheese, but you may just wish to place thin slices on top. Either way will work, but make sure if you do slice it you do it THINLY. [↩]
“Real Love” Thai Coffee Baby Shower Cake
I’ve made a few cakes for my friend Sarah over the years, and it seems like they always go over well. This one was a surprise, though; I’m not sure how much she knew about the event beforehand, but her sister and best friend had conspired to throw a surprise baby shower for her to honor the fact that she was about to become a mom for the second time.
Sarah has long been a fan of John Lennon, and unsurprisingly, she loves his Real Love drawings. With those images, some marzipan, and some food color, I set to work. 1
The cake itself was very straightforward; not Thai mocha this time, but a straight Thai coffee-infused layer cake. I also incorporated the coffee into the buttercream I made, since I felt like it would be rather similar to the sweetened condensed milk that gets mixed into cups of Thai iced coffee when they’re made. I also thought the herd of animals should be on some sort of colorful, magical gravel path on their way to Sarah’s shower, so out came the colored sugar.
Since they were marching through the forest to get to this event, obviously there had to be some dirt and bark and things littering the ground, so it was time to shave some dark chocolate to apply around the sides of the cake. Last came the sculpting and coloring and painting of the marzipan animals (or “marzipanimals,” as I started to call them), who were not only cute but also quite tasty. And unlike real animals, also quite vegetarian-friendly! 
This was Sarah, Godzilla-ing over the cake. It was definitely my favorite photo out of a very nice day.
- She’s also a fan of Thai coffee, and I swear it had nothing to do with me.
[↩]
Thai Mocha Honey Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache
This was a cake I made last year for my friend Katherine’s birthday. She’s also a great fan of Thai coffee, so I thought it would be fun to incorporate some into this cake recipe, which I adapted from a recipe found in another of Nigella Lawson’s books. I love making cakes, and especially love the way people’s faces light up when they see a particularly nice confectionery creation that they’re about to eat. But one thing I can’t countenance in any way, shape, or form is when things don’t taste good. To a slightly lesser degree, I also dislike the idea of putting something that can’t be eaten onto a cake. Obviously, there are some exceptions; I understand most wedding cake toppers are not made to be eaten, and that doesn’t bother me. But I’ll take a stand right here, right now against the sort of store-bought fondant that tastes like your elderly grandmother’s lavender-and-powder-scented bathroom. You may love your grandmother, which is lovely. Even so, you are probably still cringing with the sense-memory of that bathroom because you know exactly what I’m talking about, and you don’t want to eat it.
Some fondant can be OK, and even quite tasty. And I love making things look nice, but I just can’t get myself to sacrifice good looks over taste. I want a happy medium, as much as possible. So on this cake, everything is edible—even down to the organic orchids I used as a centerpiece on the top of the cake. The bees were made of marzipan, their wings were made of toasted almond slices, and their stripes and eyes were painted on with some of the ganache.
It turned out quite well; the original recipe was mainly for chocolate, but because I’ve had success with making an Earl Grey chocolate mousse cake before, my mind quite naturally tends to drift toward the possibilities of both tea and coffee and their peculiarly addictive and delicious possibilities when combined with some good-quality chocolate. This was an early experiment in Thai coffee, and it paid off handsomely. I served it with the aforementioned Thai coffee trifle, of which there are unfortunately no photos because it disappeared far too quickly.
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Janaki
