Southern Sushi? Tuna Roses? Snack idea!

Sometimes I just do weird stuff in the kitchen. Sometimes, like today, it turned out very well. When it turns out pretty...even better.


I made a batch of my Big Pimpin' Tuna Salad. When I opened up the fridge to pull out the English Muffins I found a bag of collard greens. I decided to combine the two. It was fantastic.


I'm calling them Southern Sushi or Tuna Roses. Which do you think?

Tuna rapped in a collard green leaf. It looks a little rose like.

Rinse off your collard green. They grow in sandy soil and sand is a perfectly good way to ruin you day. 

Take your collard leaf and spread on a cutting board. These are organic collards that I picked up from the farmer's market If you go to Whole Foods or a store with lots of variety you should look for a smaller collard leaf. The smaller the leaf the more tender the veins. They were starting to look a little tired so I'm thrilled I was able to find a purpose for them that didn't require hours of cooking.

Use your sharp knife to cut the leaf off the stalk. 

 Take a scoop of tuna salad and plop it on the strip of half collard.

 Don't get crazy with the tuna or you'll just end up with it all in your lap.

Wrap the tuna and pull the cut side of the collard leaf half a little tighter to make a cone as you wrap it. (Think of a sushi hand roll.)

Repeat until you run out of tuna or collards. Each collard half makes a one or two bite tuna roll with the size collard I bought. There were a few big leaves that looked a little more like a tuna snow cone. 

Tuna snow cone. Still very tasty. 

This was a big leaf. I like the smaller
ones for these wraps.

The raw edge makes it look like a little rose. (You can also try wrapping your collard into a wide cone and stuffing it.)

Because the stalk is removed they aren't tough or stringy. The collard actually adds a really nice crunch and crispness. 


Even if you don't like cooked collard greens, I think you'll enjoy this. They aren't pungent, the flavor is mild and it's sturdy like a cabbage leaf to hold all the goods. The Big Pinmpin' Tuna Salad has a nice kick to it and it works well with the flavor of the collard wrap.


The cone shape makes it great for tuna salad. 

Yum!

Sweet Potato Bar (Build-Your-Own Sweet Potato) for Thanksgiving

I've recently started trying different ways to eat sweet potatoes. These have always been on my most hated foods list. After trying them a few different ways I finally discovered that it isn't the sweet potato that I dislike but the too-sweet additions. I just don't care for sweet vegetables and adding marshmallows and syrup just takes it to a new level of nasty. I prefer to add savory flavors to my sweet potatoes and I've found bleu cheese crumbles, butter, salt and pepper to be the winner so far.

Thanksgiving is coming up and I wanted to serve sweet potatoes now that I actually like them. Since my dinner guest probably prefer the traditional gooey casserole to my Bleu Cheese Sweet Potatoes I thought I'd create a Build-Your-Own Sweet Potato Bar. I'm going to bake my sweet potatoes in the crock pot (anything to free more oven and stove space). I'll serve them on a platter and use a condiment server to put a collection of toppings.

These are the toppings I think I'll use:

1. Marshmallows, maybe toss them under a broiler to brown up
2. Maple syrup
3. Bleu Cheese
4. Bacon Crumbles
5. Brown Sugar

The more I think about this plan the bigger fan I become. Leftovers will be easier to manage since I'm only dealing with the baked potatoes. I don't want to waste food and I really don't want to add something like a sweet potato casserole to the menu if I won't touch it or the left overs.