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Title: Another El Cheapo Salmon Noodle Casserole Variation
Categories: Pasta Rice Casserole Easy Salmon
Yield: 8 Servings
| For the starch: | ||
| 1 | c | Macaroni elbows or spaghetti broken into short sticks |
| 1 | c | Rice |
| 4 | c | Water |
| 1 | Habanero; dried, powdered or | |
| 1 | ts | Cayenne |
| 1 | ts | Seasoned salt |
| 2 | ts | Mixed herbs; dried |
| For the sauce: | ||
| 1 | tb | [rounded] fat* |
| 1 | tb | [rounded] flour |
| 1 | c | Liquid** |
| 1/2 | c | Processed cheese; optional |
| 1 | tb | Prepared mustard or |
| 1 | ts | Powdered mustard; optional |
| Other stuff: | ||
| 1 | tb | Fat* |
| 1 | cn | Mushrooms; drained, liquid reserved |
| 1/2 | lg | Onion; chopped |
| 2 | Ribs of leafy celery; chopped | |
| 1 | lb | Can of salmon; drained, liquid reserved |
| 1 | lg | Handful frozen peas |
| 2 | tb | Paprika |
| 1/4 | c | Crushed dry bread crumbs |
| 2 | oz | Cheese; grated |
| More paprika |
Sometimes canned salmon is available in 1 lb cans at incredibly low prices. This was Sunday's quick fix and it took me back to my student days.
*For the truly frugal, use congealed sausage fat from the previous day's
cheap, fatty sausage dinner. This tastes better than it sounds. It's free
and butter isn't. **Use the liquid drained from the canned mushrooms and salmon with 2 tb
powdered milk and enough water to bring the volume up to 1 cup. Again
except for a half cent's worth of milk powder, it's free.
Add the pasta, rice and seasonings to the boiling water. Even a single
habbie will give the macaroni and rice quite a distinct bite. The idea of
the spice is to make you forget that there's really very little flavour to
the rest of the ingredients. While it cooks make a roux with any old fat laying around and make a cup of
"white" sauce. This is much cheaper than the can of condensed soup which
most of these recipes call for. If you don't have any cheese to grate over
the casserole at the end, melt a little processed cheese into the sauce. If
you haven't used the full quota of capsicum in the rice/ pasta mixture add
mustard to the sauce as well.
In a skillet saute the veggies briefly with a little fat. Once the rice
mixture has cooked, add the frozen peas to it and let them warm up.
Add the veggies, sauce, paprika and salmon to the rice mixture, mix and
turn it out into a largish casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs, cheese
[mozza or rat trap cheddar] and paprika. This is supposed to be a cheap
dish so use just a sprinkle, 2 oz not 4! Bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes til
heated through and cheese melted.
Jim Weller
From: Jim Weller Date: 14 Mar 99
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