We've experienced a week of summer this past week in April. It's been hot leaving work in the afternoon - somewhere in the upper 80's or higher. The house has been hot when I get home. In the land of fans, it doesn't really cool off much at night. On the bright side it is like a bonus week of summer when it's often gray and coolish in Seattle. After the incredibly wet winter we just came off of, it was well-deserved.

 A cold sandwich sounded good for dinner. Tonight I tried a new take on tuna. A mediterranean take. I suppose it's not such a new take if you live in the Mediterranean, but for someone who grew up with mayo-based tuna salad, it was relatively new for me for home-made.

This is an August update to the earlier post with  revised recipe...

 I used the basic ingredients I found listed on Eltana's web site, a great Seattle bagel shop who also makes a great tuna salad. They listed the ingredients for the salad - but not the proportions.  For that, I searched the web and found a few recipes. 

Here's my take. I doubt that the ingredients match up exactly with the others' recipes, but this was good enough:

The Ingredients

- Two cans of solid white albacore tuna in water
- 1/3 cup of good olive oil
- 2-1/2 tbsp of mustard (Dijon or yellow). I used high grade yellow.
- 1 large lemon, zested and juiced.
- 1 stalk of celery diced.
- red onion, about 2-3 table spoons, diced
- sweet roasted red peppers (Mama Lil's) about 4-5 forkfuls, diced
- 1-½ tsp capers
- 1 tbsp Kharcho spice blend
 - Fresh ground pepper to taste 

The Preparation

1. Mix the oil, mustard, lemon zest and lemon juice together with a whisk.

2. Slice the celery and mix with the capers

3. Select three to five roasted red peppers.  I used Mama Lil's sweet hot pepper here.

4. Dice the peppers and toss them in with the celery and capers.

5. Dice one or two slices of red onion.  Add to the other solids.

6. I used a tbsp of Kharcho spice blend.

7. Blend the spice with the vinaigrette.

8. Rinse and chop the tuna.  I used water-packed tuna.  

9. Fold the dressing and the solids in with the tuna.

Stick in the refrigerator overnight.  This batch looks a little too oily.  I will have to use with a thick roll, probably ciabiatta bread.  Next time I'll likely cut back to 1/4 cup of oil.

This will go well with a sliced nectarine, tabulleh salad, and a small bowl of gazpacho soup.