Wednesday, January 20, 2010

New Kitchen Appliance and Fun Recipe

I have been wanting this kitchen appliance for YEARS. Why I never just bought it is beyond me, but I was shopping with Rebecca this weekend, and had a great coupon for Kohl's (30% off anything) and decided to just purchase it. It is called the "Griddler" by Cuisinart, but really I wanted it mostly for the panini making part of it.

Was craving a tuna melt, so I decided to look up a unique recipe to make. I obviously know how to make a simple tuna melt, but I wanted something spicy. Found this and it was AWESOME. I followed the recipe exactly, and it was perfect. Thought the lime juice thing was weird, but it really added an interesting element to the sandwich. Had everything in the house except the jalapeno, red onion, and lime juice, which I stopped to buy tonight before making dinner. Made some instant four cheese mashed potatoes to accompany the sandwiches. If you click on the recipe below, you can find some variations of the recipe, but I loved it this way. Only try if you like spicy though!

Hot and Spicy Tuna Melt Panini
Adapted from Canadian Living
Serves 4ish

Ingredients:

2 cans solid white tuna, drained (used Starkist white albaccore)
1/4 cup mayonnaise (used low fat miracle whip)
1 celery stalk, diced
1/4 red onion, finely diced
1 teaspoon minced jalapeno pepper

****used my Cuisinart mini-prep to dice all the veggies at once
1/2 teaspoon chili powder (used Spice Islands)
2 teaspoons lime juice
4 panini buns, halved (used regular bread)
4 slices Monterey Jack cheese with hot peppers (used Sargento® Limited Edition Sliced 4 Pepper Fiesta Blend Pepper Jack Cheese)

Method:

1. Mix tuna, mayonnaise, celery, onion, jalapeno, chili powder and lime juice in a bowl.

2. Spread about a quarter of the mixture over each panini bottom, top with cheese and close the sandwich.

3. Cook in a panini press on medium until buns are toasted and cheese is melted, about 6 minutes.

Note: if you do not have a panini press, you can use a skillet. Just press to flatten.

3 comments:

Nicole said...

This sounds sooooo good! The best part is that I could make it for my husband and me and make regular tuna melts for the kids. Thanks for the recipe!

Brittany said...

Yum, that sounds good!

Megan said...

I need a picture of this Tuna Melt to really get me drooling :)