Curried Tuna Caaserole

In the last blog, I posted a recipe for jalapeno tuna casserole. I do have another, one with curry spices. It's not really an Indian dish at all, just an American dish with some curry spices added. Also, rice is used in place of noodles. In fact, it's probably a good recipe to use up leftover rice (plain or biryani) from your last visit to an Indian restaurant. Also, be sure to select plain tuna or some flavor of tuna that won't conflict with the taste of curry spices. Jalapeno or even ranch might be a good choice. But I'm not so sure about, say, BBQ or Thai spice. :-)

 For curry spicing, you could use garam masala or that deep-yellow curry powder sold at "white people" supermarkets or your favorite Indian spice. (Though I think achaar spices may be a ltitle too strong for this recipe. :-)  ) Anyway, I use Penzey's hot curry spice for this recipe. Sometime I use some of Patak's hot curry paste in place of dry spices.

Note: I use a small-ish casserole baking dish (7" x 7") since there's only two of us in the household.

Serves 4

 Ingredients

• Two packets of tuna
• 1 can of condensed cream of mushroom soup (10-11 oz)
• 1 tablespoon of water, milk or half-half to thin out the soup a bit
• 1 or 2 cup of cooked Indian rice, enough to make a layer in the dish, 1 or 2 cups
• 1-2 cups of lightly steamed broccoli, cut into small bite-size pieces
  
• handful of French's fried onion crisps
• curry spice such as Penzey's curry spices or garam masala or one tablespoon of Patak's hot curry paste
  

Directions

• Preheat oven to 360 degrees.
• Arrange a layer of rice in the dish, and then spread tuna onto the rice. Then layer the broccoli pieces above the tuna and rice.
• In a bowl, mix the soup, curry spice (or paste) and a bit with water, milk or half-half, enough so it'll spread more easily. Don't make it runny -- we're making a casserole, not soup. :-) Pour that on the top of the casserole and spread it evenly.
• Sprinkle crisp onions (and crisp jalapenos if you're using them) on top and pat them gently so they settle in the soup mixture.
• Bake for about 30 minutes or until the top is browned.