Tuna Shortcake

After a recent radio show on Discord, I was hanging in the "after-chat" with three other wonderful women — @wanderingmoon, @artemisnorth, & @shadowspub. We were talking about easy-peasy meals that could be prepared on a budget when someone mentioned the old "Chipped Beef on Toast" dish. For those who don't know, it's basically little pieces of beef that are cooked in a cream sauce and served over toasted bread. I've heard many people who had to eat it often refer to it as "S.O.S." for "Same Old Stuff" (or less reverently as "S**t On a Shingle").

That made me remember a dish that was sometimes served when I was a child, and I liked it enough to make it occasionally as an adult, too. It is tuna fish, green peas, diced pimentos, & chopped hardboiled egg cooked in a cream sauce and served over bread. The dish is called Tuna Shortcake, because it is usually served over a shortcake such as Southern-style Biscuits.

Before we go further, I feel a small tangent is in order. In the UK and some other parts of the world, the word "biscuit" is used for a small baked item with a thin, hard, and crispy texture. Where I come from, we call that a "cracker" and reserve the word "biscuit" for a bread that is more like a "scone" but softer — and that's what I mean by Southern-style Biscuits.

In the United States and some parts of Canada, a "biscuit" is a quick bread, somewhat similar to an unsweetened scone, but with a texture more "fluffy and flaky" vs. "sturdy and crumbly."  [source]

If no Southern-style Biscuits or scones are available, you can use whatever bread you have, or prefer, for making the dish. In a pinch, I've toasted store-bought loaf bread in the past, but I am sure it would be equally yummy over slices of toasted Italian or French bread, or eaten with roti, parathas, naan, or other breads. After all, the tuna fish & peas in the cream sauce is the star of the dish, not the bread.

The Recipe:

TUNA SHORTCAKE from RecipeLink.com

1 (10 3/4 oz) can Campbell's cream of chicken soup
1/4 cup milk
1 (7 oz) can tuna, drained and flaked
1 cup cooked peas
1 tablespoon chopped pimento

In saucepan, combine ingredients. Heat; stir often.

Hardboil eggs in separate saucepan. Peel them after cooling, then chop and gently stir into above mixture before serving. [optional, but adds so much to the taste!]

Serve over biscuits toasted soft bread.

MyNotes:

🔸Any creamy soup will do; my family always used Cream of Mushroom, but Cream of Chicken soup is fine, as is Cream of Celery, etc. For metric, look for the 305g sized can.

🔸The 7 ounce can of tuna is about 198.5 grams in metric. Instead of cans, I buy tuna in vacuum-sealed pouches; if you do the same, one or two small 2.6-ounce (74 grams) pouch is fine (depending on your tastes and budget).

🔸I seldom keep milk on hand, as it goes bad before I can use it all. Instead, I use half-and-half in my coffee as well as for all other cooking that requires milk. It keeps longer than plain milk, is better (to me) in coffee, and adds a richer taste than plain milk when used in recipes. Half-and-half is fine in this dish, as is plain milk. If dairy products bother you, or you are vegan, a plant-based milk such as Almond Milk will suffice, too!

🔸Since this recipe is a simple mixture of ingredients, none of the ingredients need to be measured precisely! You can use more, or less, according to your tastes or what you have available at the time. I love pimentos, so I add an entire small-sized jar. But, you can omit the pimentos, add chopped onion, add chopped mushrooms, or however you wish to tailor the recipe to suit your own taste buds! And, if you are vegan, you can use tofu, tempeh, or additional veggies in place of the tuna!

🔸Serve over Southern-style biscuits, savory scones, or toasted bread of your choice.

Thinking of tuna, the rock-and-roll band REO Speedwagon released an album in 1985 with the amusing title: "You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish" 😂 I owned that album back in the days of vinyl, but eventually gave it to a friend. It had some good songs on it, two of which became bit hits for them — "Roll with the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly."  I will leave you with one of those songs here, which you can play as you make your Tuna Shortcake. 😋

Do you have a similar recipe, something cooked in a cream sauce and served over bread? Is it a "comfort food" from your past (as my Tuna Shortcake is) or something that you use only when your finances aren't great?