Depression Era Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit Topping
Learn
how to make this Depression Era Tuna Pie with Cottage Cheese Biscuit
Topping. This affordable and delicious recipe helps to stretch our
grocery budget during these inflationary times.
Servings: 8 servings
Equipment
- 1 Oven-proof baking dish (13×9)
Ingredients
Tuna Pie Ingredients
- 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed any variety
- 1 medium yellow onion, peeled and diced
- 1 stalk celery, diced
- 2 cups assorted vegetables, cut into bite-sized pieces if necessary Examples include: carrots, string beans, peas, and corn.
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter You'll need additional butter to grease the baking dish.
- 4 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk, preferably full-fat
- 1 cup reserved vegetable cooking water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 cans tuna fish packed in water, any variety, drained and flaked Two 5-ounce cans of tuna fish worked well for me, but you can use 1 smaller can to keep the cost lower.
Cottage Cheese Biscuit Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp dried parsley
- 6 tbsp unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup cottage cheese
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter, melted optional
- 1/2 tsp sea salt optional
Instructions
To Make the Tuna Pie
- Add the potatoes, onion, and celery to a large skillet and cover with water. Bring up to a boil, then turn to medium to simmer until the potatoes are slightly undercooked. (See video.)
- Add additional vegetables and simmer for another minute or two.
- Strain vegetables into a colander over a bowl and set aside. Reserve vegetable cooking liquid and measure out 1 cup.
- To make the basic white sauce, add butter to the skillet over medium heat. Once melted, sprinkle flour into the skillet and cook the butter and flour mixture while whisking for about 2 minutes.
- Once the butter and flour mixture has cooked, add the milk and reserved vegetable cooking water into the skillet. Turn the heat to high and bring the mixture to a boil, whisking continuously until there are no lumps and the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside. (You've created your basic white sauce, which also makes an excellent substitution for condensed soup in recipes.)
- Transfer the potato and vegetable mixture to a large bowl and add in the tuna fish. Mix well.
- To the bowl, pour the sauce over the potato vegetable tuna mixture and mix well until everything is well coated.
- Transfer the mixture to a greased baking dish. Smooth out the top of the mixture and set it aside.
