Rose Prince - The New English Kitchen - Changing the Way You Shop, Cook and Eat

I could never understand why anyone would want to eat a lot of seared fresh tuna. Half the time it is dry and tasteless and, when buying it, it can be hard to tell how long it has been out of the water. What’s more, at the current rate of consumption, blue and yellow fin tuna will soon go the way of the dodo. Blue fin – the type favoured by the Japanese for top-quality sushi – is at an all-time low, while yellow fin is in serious decline. The only tuna not listed as endangered is skipjack. The standard of canned skipjack tuna varies from dubious and disgusting small flakes that look like factory-floor sweepings in unidentifiable oil, to tender fillets that, when packed in the tin, look like the cross section of an old tree trunk. This tuna is far superior and has a light texture, because it does not absorb too much oil. The unique double-cooking technique – before canning and then again when the sealed cans are heated to preserve the contents – seems to improve and tenderise the flesh. It can then simply be softly flaked into a salad or sandwich, or made into a delicately flavoured fish cake.

Trawling for any fish using nets puts other wild species at risk of getting caught up in the gear, but the risk is greater to these lovely mammals when netting tuna. Check labelling on cans to be sure it contains ‘dolphin friendly’ tuna, looking for mention of monitoring by the EII (Earth Island Institute). The ‘dolphin safe’ motto you may find on cans from North and South American tuna fisheries is not, according to marine conservationists, so closely monitored. In coming years, the EII hope to develop a logo to make it easier for shoppers.

Catching tuna by pole and line is the only truly sustainable means. Not all ‘line-caught’ tuna is sustainable. Ask for hand-lined, troll-caught tuna; or tuna caught on long lines that are ‘seabird friendly’. It is currently very difficult to tell what fishing method was used for catching skipjack tuna. This is because it is a commodity – like coffee or tea – traded on a world exchange. It’s a system of trading that undermines efforts to conserve the tuna numbers. If well-managed fisheries are not rewarded, why bother? In the coming years the Marine Stewardship Council hope to certify the pole and line tuna fisheries as sustainable – watch out for their logo on tins and jars.

You can also find handline-caught albacore – a pale, delicate-fleshed relative often dubbed ‘white tuna’, and found mostly around the coast of Spain, Portugal and France (see the Shopping Guide).

Always buy tuna packed in either olive or sunflower oil, draining it away before you use the fish.

Lovely, delicate cakes to eat for supper – tuna-loving children will adore them. Serve with a green sauce (see here).

Serves 4

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons plain flour

300ml/ 1/ 2pint milk

180g/6oz canned tuna, drained

2 shallots, finely chopped

juice of 1/ 2lemon

2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

dried breadcrumbs (see here)

sunflower oil for shallow-frying

salt and white pepper

Melt the butter in a small pan and add the flour. Cook gently for a minute, then remove from the heat. Gradually stir in the milk, then cook, stirring, until the sauce thickens and finally boils. Remove from the heat, add the tuna, stirring to break up the flakes, then add the shallots, lemon juice and Parmesan. Season with a little white pepper and the barest pinch of salt. Refrigerate the mixture until very cold, then roll it into a cylinder shape, about 4cm/1 1/ 2inches in diameter. Cut it into pastilles 2.5cm/1 inch thick and roll each one in dried breadcrumbs. Shallow-fry the tuna cakes in sunflower oil for 3–4 minutes on each side, then drain on kitchen paper.

I mix preserved tuna with lots of herbs, lemon juice, and virgin olive oil if necessary, then add black pepper and a few capers and eat it with tomatoes. The secret, by the way, of great tomato salads is skinning them. Note to the ‘time sceptics’: it takes 3 minutes to skin 4 tomatoes. This is how to do it: nick the skin of ripe tomatoes with a knife, submerge the tomatoes in boiling water for a minute, then drain and push the skins off. They have a wonderful way of homogenising the dish, absorbing the olive oil and the flavour of the herbs and allowing the tuna to stick to them.

Add drained, canned cannellini or haricot beans to make a more substantial plateful.

Flake tuna over a pea and broad bean salad dressed with olive oil.

Tuna can be added to semi-soft-boiled eggs and lettuce hearts (see here).

Tuna is always good with Mayonnaise (see here). For an interesting sauce to eat with cold veal or chicken, blend 150g/5oz tuna with 2 anchovy fillets and 150ml/ 1/ 4pint mayonnaise, then stir in 1 tablespoon chopped capers. This is a take on the dish Italians love – vitello tonnato.

The best-quality anchovies have a sleek, carefully handled appearance, and come from artisan fisheries. Spanish groceries are a good source of the best, which come packed in olive oil (see the Shopping Guide).

Melt this butter over green beans, haricots or even a dish of hot new potatoes. If you like anchovies, make a pot and keep it, covered, in the fridge.

Serves 6

150g/5oz unsalted butter

60g/2oz canned anchovies

4 sprigs of parsley, chopped

freshly ground black pepper

Soften the butter in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Drain the oil from the anchovies and pat them with a paper towel to remove any extra. Chop finely, add to the butter with the parsley and mix thoroughly. Season with black pepper and mix again; it will temper any saltiness.

Buy canned tomatoes from Italian specialist food shops, choosing authentic brands from the south of Italy. They will be genuinely sun ripened, and canned at source. The tomatoes should have a rich dark red appearance and a thick juice. It does not matter whether you buy whole, quartered or chopped tomatoes, but if you use whole ones for the following sauce, chop them roughly using a pair of kitchen scissors while they are still in the opened can.

Since beginning to make my own Tomato Sauce (see here), I have used canned tomatoes less, but was once shown a clever technique for an instant sweet sauce that has rescued a meal or two.

This sauce has been very useful in emergencies for pizza or pasta. It is rather thick because the hot oil instantly caramelises the tomatoes, but it has a character of its own. The technique was shown to me by Carla Tomasi, a wonderful cook from Rome.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 can of chopped tomatoes

8 basil leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper

You need a heavy frying pan with a lid to make this sauce safely and successfully. Have the canned tomatoes open and ready.

Put the oil in the frying pan and heat to smoking point. Working quickly, pour in the tomatoes and slam on the lid, otherwise the sauce will spit. When the sound of sizzling has died down, remove the lid and add the basil. Season with salt and pepper.

Substitute passata for tinned tomatoes for a very smooth sauce.