TUNA SALAD SANDWICH 2 WAYS (This Cooking Method Blew My Mind)

hey what's up today i'm going to show you guys how to make two very different but very good tasting tuna salads the first of which is a comforting creamy deli style tuna salad and the second is a salty oily fishy mediterranean style that has a pretty unique cooking method and tastes super intense before we get started on the deli style salad we need to decide what type of tuna to use first i've got three candidates of varying cost here on the right i've got a can that cost about 75 cents and as you can see it's pretty juicy but not in a good way the label says that it has water and vegetable broth added to it and apparently there's a lot of it in there this one is not my favorite the middle can cost a dollar fifty and the chunk size is not looking too good it looks a lot like pet food in my opinion and there's still a bunch of water in there which isn't necessarily a bad thing but i know from experience that this one is pretty soggy the last can costs three dollars and it's just a whole muscle of cooked tuna in a can it's got a really nice large flake to it there's no water added and it does not look like pet food i clearly choose the fancy one oh and if you're wondering why i'm only using skipjack tuna here i read that it has the least mercury in it and i hope that's true because i've been eating a lot of tuna over the last two weeks now to make this deli style tuna salad i'm gonna use two cans of that three dollar tuna that we just looked at and notice that i've added all the juice that's in the can that's not water it's actually tuna juice and the can says not to discard it there's a lot of omega-3s in there i guess gotta have omega-3s for now i'm gonna keep all the juice in there but i might scoop a little bit out of there as we go we'll see next step i'm gonna make some bright clean tasting mayo for the salad and for that i'm gonna grab a high-sided container into it add one large egg if you have reservations about raw egg in your food i would say just use a good store-bought mayo like dukes next in goes 20 grams of water 20 grams of white distilled vinegar and five grams of salt the immersion blender goes in and now i'm gonna give this a spin to get things started and then i'm gonna grab 325 grams of neutral oil and then stream it in slowly there we go once that oil spun up now we've got a simple clean flavorful mayonnaise and if you're a miracle whip guy or girl then i would say add 15 grams of sugar at this point and you probably won't regret it now i'm gonna set this mayo up on my gram scale then grab my tuna bowl and then scoop out 110 grams of it there's probably another 250 grams in this deli container of mayonnaise and it will keep in the fridge for about a week i think there's a little bit too much tuna juice in this bowl now that i'm looking at it again so i'm going to take out a spoonful of that and now i'm gonna add in everything else first up is some bread and butter pickles these are one of my all-time favorite ways to add crunchy sweet acidity to any dish and i really can't recommend making tuna salad without them in total i'm chopping 50 grams of these pickles down until they look kind of like relish if you don't have bread and butter pickles relish would be a good sub in they go next up is gonna be some shallots that's about 20 to 30 grams in total and i prefer these to be very very small diced large chunks of onions are a little bit too rustico for me and they tend to take over whatever they're in so we're gonna go small once these are small diced i'm gonna grab a little hand strainer and rinse these under cold water to remove some of that sulfury edge that's gonna let the tuna salad stay good for an extra day in the fridge and make it taste less bad up next to bring some assertive brininess to the table i'm going to rough chop about 10 grams of drained capers i prefer not to cut these too small because i really love it when there's pops of saltiness in the salad that looks good in they go one last little bit of knife work here is to small dice some celery that's roughly one stalk or maybe 35 grams of celery all day just like the shallot i'm trying to keep this stuff pretty small because a little bit of crunch is a good thing but large chunks in a salad are just gonna be too fibrous and kind of punishing once i've got 35 grams of celery in the bowl with the rest of the tea i'm gonna add 30 grams of yellow mustard i prefer yellow here because of its tang and acidity over like grainy or dijon mustard but if that's what you prefer you do you then i'm going to add in a generous pinch of salt or about one and a half grams worth then 10 to 15 cranks of black pepper are about one gram now to mix this up the proper tool is a fork it really lets you get in there and break up any large chunks of tuna that don't want to become salad in my opinion for a deli style tuna salad large chunks of tuna are not really something you want even though this three dollar can of tuna does taste great it's been cooked at a super high temperature in the can and that is not very pleasant to eat without a bunch of mayo on it i also don't want mushy tuna paste either so we want a middle ground where the flake size is kind of medium-ish and that looks about right now to determine doneness here of course i'm gonna give this a taste you guys that tastes good let's make it into a sandwich for the bread i've chosen to use the utility white pan loaf from my blt video for the full process on how to make this loaf check that vid i will link it in the description i've chosen this loaf because it's a little bit heartier than like a wonder bread style white bread but it's still nicely tender and has just a little touch of sweetness to it once i've got two pieces sliced i'm gonna go one more step here by lightly toasting them an untoasted tuba sandwich with bread like this is actually really good by the way but i think the super light toast on the outside is gonna help with structural integrity and provide just a little bit of textural contrast which i love once that bread's toasted i'm going to lay it down and then spread some more mayonnaise on there to kind of act as sandwich glue most deli sandwiches can benefit from having this layer spread on either side it really holds things together and overall it's just a super pro move from there i'm going to add half of my tuna salad that's about 6 ounces or so 170 grams then for some additional acidity i'm going to top this with some more chopped bread and butter pickles then a few cranks of black pepper and of course a healthy dose of shredded from there i'm gonna finish this with the top slice of well-mayonnaise bread give it a little tweak to keep things tight and then give it a firm but gentle press you guys this tuna salad is somehow quite moist but not wet at all it's rich and creamy and just a little bit sweet and actually has some good tasting fish in it go figure for the next sandwich we're going to make that oily salty mediterranean style tuna salad so to get started we need some raw tuna this is one pound or a rough half kilo of big eye tuna it's about 20 a pound so it's not cheap but most frozen tuna steaks you can find at the store like say a yellowfin tuna steak would also work really well and probably would cost a little bit less now before i cook this i'm going to heavily salt it on both sides with a few strong pinches of kosher salt lean fish like this without salt just doesn't taste good so it needs a generous amount now to cook or more accurately poach this tuna i'm going to grab a smallish sauce pot and put it down over medium heat into that goes 500 grams or maybe two and a half cups of olive oil and yes that is a lot of oil but it's not super nice olive oil it's like six dollars for a half liter and it's more than good enough for just cooking fish five minutes later once this oil is preheated to 150f or 65c i'm gonna lay in my salted tuna steak and poach this over low-ish heat for about 25 to 30 minutes after about a minute of cooking i'm gonna come back and give that tuna a gentle nudge to make sure it hasn't gotten stuck to the bottom of the pot and then also to check the temperature of the oil when you're poaching stuff in oil on the stovetop you do have to check the temperature a few times throughout the process to make sure that the temperature isn't getting too high see it's 175 f here that's a little bit too hot so i'm gonna move this off the heat and let it come down in temperature for three to four minutes man i really wish there was an easier way to do this that was also very delicious oh wait is that another piece of salted tuna right there oh my gosh let's sous-vide it to do that i'm gonna grab a tall-sided pot with about four liters or a gallon of warm water and then add in my immersion circulator in restaurants i use sous-vide all the time especially in fine dining but it never really made it into my home cooking which is a shame because it's a really cool way to cook and it's not nearly as expensive as it used to be once i've got the circulator set up for 150 f65c i'm gonna grab my tuna and get that set up to cook that's gonna involve some kind of sealable bag usually it's a vacuum sealed one but in small batches at home ziploc bags do work now one of the main benefits of oil poaching sous-vide is that you can use a lot less of a much better tasting oil in this case i'm using a few splashes of the alive olive oil from the sponsor of this video brightland brightland sells delicious high quality 100 extra virgin olive oils that are produced on small family farms in california and they're fully traceable that last part actually matters a lot because there's a ton of variability in olive oil and you might not actually be getting in the bottle what the label says i've actually been using the alive oil at home a lot recently for dressing salads it's a blend of arbi kenya and arbo sauna olives and it's cold pressed within 90 minutes of harvest it's got a really nice bright green edge to it it's incredibly clean and tastes really in focus it's like medium bitterness i'd say overall it's incredibly delicious as is or put it on top of some fresh hummus or honestly it's at its best just paired with brightland rapture balsamic as a super simple clean salad dressing for just arugula and some of that nice canned tuna from earlier in this video so to try brightland click the link in my description to get 10 off your first essential capsule set that's both the alive and awake olive oils packaged together with their champagne vinegar and their rapture balsamic the capsule would make an amazing gift by the way nice oil and vinegar is a true luxury for any home cook and they would thank you for it so to support me and to try brightland use the link in my description and get 10 off your first essential capsule set these heavy duty ziplock bags that i'm using have a little vacuum port that's supposed to let you suck out all the air but since there's oil in the bag it's not really designed for that and it does not stand a chance so let me show you an easier way first lower the bag into the preheated water bath with the top cracked open then gently lower it a little bit further making sure to keep that open top above the water line as you go down the water pressure is basically going to squeeze out all of the air in the bag and once you're close to that water line with the top of the bag just press it to seal it up and now you have almost no air in there once that's all sealed up i'm going to set a timer and let the olive oil poach this fish in the water for about 35 minutes while that cooks let's check back on the old-fashioned style poach fish on the stove it's been about 25 minutes and this fish should be gently cooked throughout to find out for sure though i'm gonna check in with my instant read thermometer 150f 65c that's exactly what we're looking for now i'm gonna let this fish rest in the oil and cool down for about 30 minutes or so back at the sous vide tuna it's been 35 minutes and this thing should be perfectly cooked now to slow down the cooking process we're gonna add in a full quart of ice then take out the immersion circulator and let this tuna rest and cool down for 10 to 15 minutes when the water's not hot anymore we're gonna take this out of the bath and then move it off to the side for just a minute the tuna we poached in the saucepans had a good chance to cool off and now it's ready to be pulled out of the oil if you're not gonna be making tuna salad today you could definitely store this poached fish in this oil in the fridge for like three to five days and it's gonna stay super moist as you can see there's a bunch of gross coagulated fish protein on the outside from being poached and that's totally normal we're just gonna wipe that off before we eat when i break into this stuff you can see right away how totally tender it is the pieces just flake apart and it looks super meaty the flavor is also super good and honestly it's pretty hard to describe it's very different than canned tuna but it is so delicious and rich which is weird because there's almost no fat in this fish oil poaching is just an amazing way to cook fish meat it turns out okay let's check on the sous-vide version color-wise it is very similar to the stovetop version but moisture-wise it really is on another level look how juicy this stuff is when i flake it apart they're both so good that's a delight i agree completely my work now to make this into a salad i'm going to use 225 grams or about a half pound of either one of these tunas i just happen to be using the sous vide stuff if you want to make this salad but you don't want to cook your own tuna i would say opt for a nice oil-packed white tuna like this one this stuff is really delicious but it does cost about seven dollars a can so it's a little bit easier but definitely not cheaper behind the tuna i'm going to add in about a half shallot or 25 to 30 grams of shell that i'm going to give a very fine mince i'm not going to be rinsing the shell this time around because this salad is super rustico by design and that raw oniony edge is going to be welcome next up is parsley this is 10 grams of just leaves i've removed all of the stems and i'm gonna give that a rustic chop nothing too specific here that goes into the bowl next in is roasted red peppers one of my favorite pantry items of all time i love the savory sweetness that they bring to just about anything that they touch they have an almost tomato weak quality to them and yeah they're dope i'm throwing a dice on them 30 grams total in they go for some texture that's like celery but has some additional mystery i'm gonna use fresh fennel i'm gonna be dicing it super small just like the celery because fennel can get super fibrous in the same way 10 grams small diced goes in now to bring two salty bits of briny sharpness to this salad i'm going to add 25 grams of kalamata olives that i've just chopped coarsely and then 10 to 15 grams of capers depending on how much you like them then i've also chopped coarsely the finishing touch here is going to be 35 grams of fresh bright olive oil just like the stuff that we sous-vided the fish in earlier then 20 grams of good tasting red wine vinegar oh yeah and the last touch here is to add 15 to 20 cranks of cracked black pepper now to mix this salad i'm going to grab a fork just like before but this time we want to keep things chunky we spent some good money and time on this fish and we want to make sure that we can enjoy it in its purest large format if you see anything over about an inch big just press the fork into it to break it in half and wow this salad looks beautiful truly but does it taste beautiful though as always we gotta try it first hand to find out and you guys it's oily it's salty it's sweet it's a little bit crunchy and fishy in the best possible way now to make this into a sandwich i'm gonna grab some bread that is rustic and narrow this is something that's kind of baguette adjacent if you want a recipe for a baguette by the way i will link to my baguette video in the description first thing down and the only thing down just gonna be a lot of poached tuna salad maybe like eight ounces this recipe makes enough for two very hungry people or maybe four people who wanna have a little snack from there i'm gonna crack some additional black pepper on top then drizzle a whole bunch of olive oil on top of that now to finish i'm going to carefully snug the top piece of bread on top of the tuna then give it a slow thorough squish to unify the bread with the fish in my mind this is the ideal picnic food in one hand i've got a tart chilled glass of white wine and in the other i've got some oily fishy tuna salad you tell me what could be more civilized let's eat this thing [Music] you

Channel: Brian Lagerstrom

Views: 1,096,942

Keywords: tuna salad sandwich, tuna salad, poached tuna, best canned tuna, tuna salad recipe, deli tuna salad, mediterranean tuna salad, sous vide tuna, oil poached tuna, tuna sandwich, tuna sandwich recipe, how to make tune salad, tuna salad ingredients, sandwiches, how to poach tuna, how to sous vide tuna, cooking, recipes, brian lagerstrom, weeds and sardines, tuna recipe, how to make tuna salad, #brightland

Id: dZLkmXCAK8w

Length: 14min 26sec (866 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 04 2021