A Kitty in the Kitchen

 with Suzanne Dunaway

Chicken with Cold Tuna Sauce

Everyone is worried about me because I’m lethargic. And why not? Don’t lions sleep all day in Africa and hunt at night? Not that I hunt, but it’s hotter here than a chili pepper, whatever that is, and I’ve found a great place under the couch where I am in the dark and cool and can sleep the day away. Mama went online and found that if I’m eating properly and pooing properly, all is well, but 25-degree heat does not go well with lots of action.

In the kitchen I see mama making something really cool and appetising and delicious because it has tuna in it and anchovies and I love both. To start, she puts a jar of tuna in the top of that machine that whizzes around, and then she puts some basil and capers and a couple of anchovies and then a couple of spoons of mayonnaise and fresh pepper and turns on the machine until everything is mixed; then she puts in a little chicken broth (you can bet I know what that is–she left some out last night in a little cup and was it there this morning? No way, Jose!)  and a squeeze of lemon juice and voilásauce au thon!

Then she gets just the right consistency, sort of like crêpe batter, thick and nice but not too thick, and then she gets the sauce nice and cold and then for dinner for her and papa (and for ME, I hope, I hope), she spreads it over thin-sliced, poached turkey or chicken breasts or even over big slices of ripe tomato, and that’s it. Easy, no?

She lets me push the ‘On’ button with my paddy-paw but it scares the bejesus out of me and I run like a crazed weasel out of the kitchen and back under the couch.

That was a close one, but boy, do I love mama’s easy recipes during the PO’s hot summers.

But mama also makes a mean gazpacho, or as she calls it, salmorejo, which is the version from Cordoba in Spain, she says.

She uses that same whizzer and puts in 2 cucumbers, peeled, 4 really ripe tomatoes, 1 small sweet onion, a tiny clove of fresh garlic, a handful of toasted almonds, 1 crisp toast (the kind you buy already made in packages) or a slice of stale bread (no crusts), a few sprigs of cilantro and mint and a good splash of olive oil, the same kind she dribbles over my food to make my coat shiny. Taste it for salt and pepper or add a pinch of cayenne and a spoon of red wine vinegar or is you have sherry vinegar, use that.

But now, it’s back to the couch for me. Cooking is exhausting…

 

 

 

ABOUT THE WRITER

Suzanne Dunaway loves “cooking and painting, gardening, singing, playing the piano, her husband’s ex-wife, her two very individual step-children and six step-grandchildren, and she has strong opinions about cooking with indiscriminate dry spices, sprouted garlic, or green peppers, and ordering cappuccino in Italy after 10AM.”
She regularly shares with P-O Life readers her PO-inspired culinary creations.

With many strings to her bow, she is also an artist and columnist, with two published cookbooks and a talented and exciting writer.
Get a copy of her ‘No Need to Knead: Handmade Artisan Breads in 90 Minutes’ here  
Or her 5 star rated book ‘Rome, at Home: The Spirit of La Cucina Romana in Your Own Kitchen’ here

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT SUZANNE

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