One of my favorite food jokes comes from an early ’80s comedy, “Night Shift,” in which a young Michael Keaton plays a hustling morgue attendant. The Keaton character keeps a pocket cassette recorder handy so he can dictate his hare-brained get-rich-quick ideas as they occur to him. My favorite is this one: “Instant tuna salad….feed the fish mayonnaise…”
The association of tuna, especially canned tuna, with mayonnaise is inevitable, isn’t it? Especially in this country. In France or Italy, canned tuna is often oil-packed, served in a salad with a mustard vinaigrette or olive oil and lemon. Here we like mayonnaise, and lots of it, on our tuna, which is usually sold water-packed, and is often stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth dry.
I like to make tuna salad with mayonnaise, yes, but to put a twist on it by using Kewpie, the savory Japanese mayo made with cider vinegar and a little MSG . MSG, which occurs naturally in seaweed and other food stuffs, is a fermented product that adds complexity to mayonnaise — that umami note.
Make your tuna salad with premium chunk canned albacore, rather than the shredded stuff that has the consistency of cat food. Tuna salad needs a little sharpness, so I add good strong Dijon mustard, hot sauce, and finely diced red onion. For a clean finish, a little parsley and fresh lemon.
Note: Capers are great in tuna salad, too, but not everybody likes them, so sprinkle them on top of the salad rather than mixing them in.
Savory Tuna Salad
Makes about 2 cups.
Ingredients
2 7-ounce cans premium chunk albacore, drained thoroughly
⅓ cup Kewpie mayonnaise (sold at Asian markets, including H Mart and Pacific Ocean Marketplace)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Few shots hot sauce
4 tablespoons minced red or yellow onion
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Juice of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
Directions
Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and adjust seasoning if necessary. Refrigerate covered until ready to use. Serve on toasted baguette, ciabatta, soft Italian roll or rye bread with a little sliced avocado.
