My friends Debbie and Jodi invited me to join the crowd at their house for break fast on Yom Kippur and asked me to bring tuna salad. Well, I hope they know that there will be no can or store bought mayo involved… Price was not my first consideration but, Trader Joe’s sells frozen albacore filets for less per pound that their canned tuna. Nice bonus!

Layer the bottom of a heavy pot (just the size to hold the tuna in one layer) with lemon slices, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and pepper corns.

Lay the tuna on top of the aromatics.

Pour in olive oil to cover (this required half a liter).

Bring just to a simmer. Turn off heat. Flip the fish over (to bring the other side into contact with the lemon and to move the edge that is in contact with the hot pot to the center). Cover and let stand for about 20 minutes until just cooked through.

Store the fish in a bag. Strain and refrigerate the oil. I will use some of it to make mayo for the salad. Properly stored and heated to 165 F before using you can poach fish in it again.

Follow a standard mayo recipe using some of the olive oil that the fish was poached in. I am going to skip taking photos while I have an immersion blender in one hand and a bottle of olive oil in the other. I used the juice of half a lime to make mine and less oil than one would usually use per one egg yolk so I made a very eggy mayo.

Wash your hands WELL and flake up the fish by smushing it (that’s a technical cooking term of course).

Wash your hands well again. Offer them to the cat to smell. He will tell you if you got all the tuna smell off of them… Careful not to get bitten. Add 1/2 cup finely diced celery (I like to to use the very tender inner stalks and some of the pale green leaves), and a 1/4 cup each chives and parsley. Throw in any other veggies, pickles, olives, herbs you wish. Add the mayo and mix. Salt to taste.

This made about a quart of tuna salad. Scale it to fit your needs.

• 1.75 pounds frozen albacore
• .5 liter olive oil
• about 2/3 cup mayo
• celery and herbs