Family Cooking (IV) Tuna Mornay

Tuna Mornay
A Main Meal

With full acknowledgments to Tarn, Bev and Dee

As a kid, I liked fish two ways, tuna from the can, and battered deep fried flake (gummy shark). Adelaide, the Eighties, Tarnia tried to get me to eat her favourite fish dinner- salmon patties. "Yeah but Nah, thanks Tarn.", then got me with the Tuna Mornay instead, oh yummy! Of course, tuna was not her fave...



1997

Tarn would often have to make up three different main courses at one time. Son#1 and Son#2 were of different ages, kinder and toddler. The few published recipes here MIGHT have been eaten by the kids, but usually there was a separate cook-up for them when I was home from the drilling rigs.

We were pretty concerned that #1 really really really only liked a beef sausage, some raw beans, half a raw carrot and maybe some mashed spuds. And tomato sauce/ketchup. A lot. A dietitian said, "He is eating, but try him on other foods to eat 'til the plates finished. If he goes to bed hungry after a few nights, it might sink in..." As the eldest of six, this sounded reasonable to me. But upset Tarn a lot. But persistence paid off, and so dinner preparation was finally much shorter with only one main course to do for four.



From the top of my head, here we go, for four people:


Ingredients 

• Tuna  300-500 gm 
• Onion diced finely
• Garlic clove, diced, minced
• Butter- a table spoon plus
• cheese a cup grated, parmesan or tasty, or both
• Flour 
• Milk half a cup
• Curry powder, 2-4 teaspoons
• Pepper
• Tomato or sweet chili sauce
• pasta 400gm: noodles, fettuccine, spirals or penne

Method

1. Boil up water for pasta and cook to aldenté
2. Meanwhile heat the saucepan, 
3. Add pepper, 
4. Melt butter, then add onion and garlic and soften up
5. Add flour, stir then slowly add milk, and stir all up to sauce like consistency on low heat.
6. Add in tuna with or with liquid from the can- which can be water or oil
7. Stir it all up, and add curry powder and other sauces like tomato or sweet chili
8. Heat for 5 minutes and remove.
9. Add cheese and stir.
10. Place cooked pasta in a baking dish, and pour over the tuna mornay sauce. 
11. Spread some more grated cheese over that and top it off with bread crumbs. 
12. Bake in a moderate oven for 20 minutes (180°C or 350°F)