The versatility of Shines Tuna. And do watch out for that Yellow Fin Belly

The versatility of Shines Tuna

And do watch out for that Yellow Fin Tuna Belly

Shines Yellow Fin Tuna with Macroom Buffalo Mozzarella.

I never really thought of the can of tuna in the cupboard as anything other than a handy standby. But all that changed over the past month or so. Beginning when a box of cans that I had ordered from Shines of Killybegs arrived at the house, six cans and two jars!

How could that all be used without us getting fed up of the fish? We did a little bit of research and found recipes in unexpected places. Firstly, Shines themselves have quite a few on their website and it was there that we started.

Shines Wild Irish Tuna

We picked one by Ciara Shine. Her “Speedy Salad” was described as “a nice fresh dish, easy to prepare. Looks and tastes amazing!” And it lived up to its billing. You can see the recipe here.There are a quite a few items on the list of ingredients but you can pick and choose. Basically you need Shines Wild Irish Tuna (we used the jar) and salad leaves. We added olives and semi-sundried tomatoes and also some of the ORSO Pickled Red Onion (which didn’t make the photo). We were off to a great start.

Another look at the Shine page led to us following, approximately, John Shine’s own contribution: Tuna Mediterranean Wrap. Again, some substitutions were made and our “mix” consisted mainly of Shines Chilli Tuna, lettuce leaves, tomatoes, peppers. Easy to do and worked out well and met John’s description: “Healthy and tasty. Perfect lunchtime treat.”

So what next? Well, the answer was in the post. I had recently ordered The Anti-Cancer Cookbook (an excellent cookbook with all the royalties going to cancer research). A quick flick through on arrival and, without specifically looking for tuna recipes, two turned up. We picked the Tuna and Sweetcorn Fritters, something different, something quite tasty. We added a nice salad to the tuna (Shines Irish Tuna from a can this time) and sweetcorn with a Spicy Ketch-up (by Tipp’s 3 Men in a Trailer). And this surprise recipe turned out very well indeed!

I had read somewhere about tuna being used with Mozzarella and that became our focus for our next dish, another easy one. Yellowfin Tuna belly in olive oil was the chosen can this time - John Shine is very enthusiastic about this particular Tuna, with very good reason as this particular fish is so exquisite you could eat it straight out of the can. A quick trip to the local Dunnes Stores saw us get the Macroom Mozzarella from Johnny Lynch’s farm.

Tuna Fritters

We didn’t need much more, some large tomatoes and basil for the cheese, and a bunch of cherry tomatoes for the salad. It looked nice and tasted even better. Thanks to an internet event, I had just received received the marvellous prize winning Rós Cider (Apple and Rhubarb) from local producer Stonewell. And Rós got on so well with the tuna and the cheese you’d have sworn they were made for each other. 

We still have a few cans of Shines fish left (sardines certainly) but I doubt that we’ll top the Tuna belly, the Mozzarella and the Rós cider combination! Might well do it again soon as there’s still another bottle of that delicious Rós hanging around here.. I think!

* On a separate note, did you know the Irish fishermen catch plenty of top quality sardines each November /December ? Very soon you will be able to buy Irish sardines from Shines. Interested businesses are invited to call John Shine anytime on 0868164106 for further info on this new product.