Oct 8
2010
Pillsbury Crescent Finalist smallHave you voted yet today? You can vote once every day between now and December 31st! Help me win the title of favorite Crescent Cook and be entered for the chance to win $5,000! (See more voting details at the end of this post.)* Oh, and y’all better be entering our awesome Food Ninja Contest now, ya hear?!?

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I’ve been reading the fabulous Three Many Cooks blog for a while now.  I love the warmth, the style of recipes, and writing on this great blog.  Then, when I was in NYC in June for the Electrolux Banana Splits Event, I got to meet up with Maggy, one of the “Three Cooks,” for dinner.  I instantly loved her.  She was as wonderful in person as she is on the blog.  Warm, intelligent, funny (and gorgeous!!), Maggy is the type of person you hope to meet.  So when I had the chance to receive a review copy of Maggy’s mom’s newest book, Perfect One-Dish Dinners, I jumped at the opportunity.

Perfect ONE-DISH Dinners, by Pam Anderson

The book certainly did not disappoint.  Pam Anderson infused her book with the same warmth, beautiful writing, and delicious food that is in every post on the Three Many Cooks website.  The book is brimming with ideas on how to make meals for get-togethers something easy and stress-free.  The book presents one-dish meals that are not only served in one dish, but are cooked in a single dish too.  To me this embodies easy entertaining.  If I can have a fuss-free delicious meal AND not have to do a ton of dishes after making it, that is definitely going to reduce my stress level.  Not only is the book full of delicious dishes (let me tempt you with a little drool-worthy sneak peak),

'Perfect ONE-DISH Dinners' yummy photography

but Pam has also included tons of tips for alternatives to make recipes easier, interchangeable menu ideas so that you don’t have to plan out the menu by yourself, and even a section on how to turn your own oven into a pressure cooker!  This book is an absolute treasure.  Go watch the promo video for the book and you’ll quickly see why I love this family and book so much!

Picking a recipe to share with you was seeming impossible, because everything looked so good, until I saw the recipe for ‘Tuna Salad with Sushi Flavors on Sesame Rice Crackers.’ Does that scream “Fuji Food” or what?!?  When I tweeted Maggy and told her what I was making, she responded, “We just call that Poor Man’s Sushi. ;)  It’s really delicious, but as my mom says it’s almost ’embarrassingly easy.’  I think it’s a point of pride for her.  Really delicious fun food that’s also really easy to make.”  I love that mentality.  Too often we think that delicious food is complicated or fancy, and we miss out on celebrating flavors through simple dishes!  “Poor Man’s Sushi” is an apt description of this appetizer.  The recipe notes say, “If sushi’s a little pricey (or if you’ve got a crow of people who are not sure how they feel about eating raw fish), here’s a great solution” (thus the name “Poor Man’s Sushi”).

Poor Man's Sushi

This appetizer really is stress free.  All you have to do is mix some tuna with wasabi and mayonnaise, spoon a bit onto a rice cracker, and garnish it with a slice of pickled ginger.  I ended up making two versions of this “sushi”—one version with a tuna salad, following the original recipe, and then a crab salad version.

Crab Salad On Rice Crackers

For the tuna salad version I did made a couple of tweaks to the recipe.  The recipe calls for canned tuna, but I used tuna packed in a pouch.  I went with this choice thanks to an episode of Good Eats I happened to see recently (thanks to that lovely tonsillectomy I had last month I watched more TV than I’ve watched in the past 10 years) where Alton Brown explained that tuna packed in a pouch is more moist than canned tuna because of the reduced processing time in sealing the packaging.

Tuna packed in a pouch

The other change I made was to add toasted black sesame seeds to the tuna salad.  I did this because the original recipe calls for rice crackers, preferably with black sesame seeds on them.  I could only find these tamari brown rice crackers, but I LOVE the flavor of black sesame seeds, so decided to just add them into the salad!

Rice Crackers

The finished “sushi” was absolutely delicious and only took me 5 minutes to prepare from start to finish.  Plus, the only dish that I got dirty was a tiny little bowl that I used to mix the salad together in.  SCORE!

Tuna Salad With Sushi Flavors on Rice Crackers

Print This Recipe Print This Recipe

Poor Man’s Tuna Salad Sushi

Adapted from Perfect One-Dish Dinners, by Pam Anderson, p.11

Makes 2 dozen pieces

2 pouches (6.4 ounces each) tuna, drained and mashed to a paste
2 medium scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
2 — 4 teaspoons wasabi paste (depending on the ‘heat’ of the brand of wasabi)
2 teaspoons toasted black sesame seeds
24 rice crackers
24 slices pickled ginger

1. Mix the tuna, scallions, mayonnaise, wasabi, and sesame seeds in a small bowl.

2. Place a heaping teaspoonful of the tuna salad on each cracker.  Garnish with a slice of pickled ginger and serve.

For the crab version, I used some Dungeness crab I had from I Love Blue Sea.

Making the crab salad

Instead of scallions, I used chopped chives, and replaced the wasabi with a tiny bit of Sriracha.  The crab version was equally delicious!

Poor Man's Crab Sushi

Print This Recipe Print This Recipe

Poor Man’s Crab Salad Sushi

Adapted from Perfect One-Dish Dinners, by Pam Anderson, p.11

Makes 2 dozen pieces

12 ounces Dungeness crab, cooked, shredded, and mashed lightly
2 medium scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Sriracha
2 teaspoons toasted black sesame seeds
24 rice crackers
chives, to garnish

1. Mix the crab, chives, mayonnaise, Sriracha, and sesame seeds in a small bowl.

2. Place a heaping teaspoonful of the tuna salad on each cracker.  Garnish with chives and serve.

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* Pillsbury Crescent Cook Contest Voting:

To vote for me in the Pillsbury Crescent Cook Contest, you have to fill out the entire form below the pictures and set up an account for your vote to count. After registering the first time, you then have to log in for each subsequent vote (log in area is at the top of the page), hit the vote button, then scroll down and hit the “Enter Now” button. You’ll know that your vote has been counted if you then get a screen that starts with, “Thank you for entering the My Crescent Wow Sweepstakes!” Thank you so much for your support!!

{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }

Heather (Heather's Dish) October 8, 2010 at 7:54 am

wow, that’s just about the prettiest tuna i’ve ever seen! i am now reminded that i really need to invest in some sriracha….

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Quyen - Kitchen Runway October 8, 2010 at 8:21 am

Those look great LFM! =) Thanks for the tip on pouch tuna vs. canned tuna!

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Fuji Mama (Rachael) October 8, 2010 at 10:17 am

@Quyen – Kitchen Runway, You’re welcome! XOXO

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Tracy October 8, 2010 at 10:34 am

I puffy heart LOVE this book!!

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Jen @ How To: Simplify October 8, 2010 at 2:39 pm

I’ve been wanting to try this recipe ever since it was served at the Big Summer Potluck. I love this idea!

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Mindy October 9, 2010 at 4:10 am

I love the version with the crab!

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saltyseattle October 10, 2010 at 7:31 am

An idea that is genius in its simplicity and yet you made it even better with your slight modifications. Love the crab version especially since Dungeness holds a soft spot in my heart. Very Fuji Ninja:)

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Ananda Rajashekar October 10, 2010 at 8:36 am

Ohhh love love love those little crab sushi, pretty, loving ur space La Fuji mama :)

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tables October 10, 2010 at 7:28 pm

I am trying out all of this week. I have no work so I better waste my time in the kitchen with all these good stuff.

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Maria October 10, 2010 at 10:17 pm

We are loving Pam’s book too! Great recipes and a lot of love in this book!

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Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga) October 11, 2010 at 3:12 pm

love the simplicity of this recipe! I cant eat crab (really allergic) but it would make a fast party appetizer!

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Cookin' Canuck October 11, 2010 at 8:48 pm

I had such a tough time choosing a recipe to make first from this book because they all looked wonderful. I chose the Spicy Coconut Shrimp Stew, which was fantastic. This “sushi” will be next on my list.

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Kita October 19, 2010 at 3:56 pm

Poor man or not this looks delicious! Its something I could make myself for lunch (since no one else in this household will touch tuna) and not feel so gluttonous after eating. Thanks!

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