Tuna Casserole: Runny Activation Batch Yogurt Edition!

I’ve had a number of runny activation batches lately, so it seemed reasonable to do things with them, once I’d set out recultures to culture. Normally I just use milk for the dairy portion of this meal. Some little birdies told me they wanted to have tuna casserole for dinner, and I am hardly one to complain about or deny a request for an easy dinner! As you can see, I forgot to take a picture until after eating was well underway.

This is easy, yum, and requires no ferments. Seriously - use milk if you don’t have a runny yogurt on hand. That’s the normal way of making a béchamel, anyway.

Here’s what you’ll need

1 pound pasta, boiled for around 7 minutes (I used a mix of wide egg and tri-color rotini)

1 can of corn, drained, or a couple of handfuls of freeze dried corn, or probably 2 ears’ worth of kernels, or half a regular sized bag of frozen corn

2 stalks of celery, sliced in half lenthwise, then sliced cross-wise

4 regular-sized cans of tuna, drained

1-2 tablespoons of lemon pepper

4 tablespoons of butter, divided

3 tablespoons of flour

1 cup of milk or runny yogurt

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg (or mace, but nutmeg is traditional)

1 teaspoon of thyme

Here’s what you do!

Tump the corn, cooked pasta, tuna, and lemon pepper in your casserole dish. I don’t fuss with greasing it first, but you’re welcome to if that’s your thing. Mix it all up.

Heat half of the butter in your saucepan over medium-high heat, then add your celery, thyme, and nutmeg to it, with salt and pepper, of course, and fry it until barely soft (maybe 5 minutes. Toss that in with the rest of the casserole bits you’ve combined thus far.

Béchamel: melt the other half of the butter, and once melted, add the flour all in one shot. You don’t really have to measure properly. I use my hands to measure. Whisk or stir that mixture until you can smell that the flour is cooking, but it’s still blond. You want a blond roux. Slowly whisk in your yogurt or milk, and whisk, whisk, whisk! Remember to put some salt and pepper! You should always season with each step. Once it’s thickened up to something gravy-like, it’s ready to add to the casserole mix.

As soon as you’ve got everything mixed up, go on ahead and level it a bit. Doesn’t have to be perfectly flat, but should be kind of level so it cooks more evenly.

Bake time!

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C/GM4. Toss that bad boy in there, then let it bake for 1 hour. Let sit 10-15 minutes after it comes out so you don’t burn your tongue. I always burn my tongue.