What are Some Meal Ideas Using Canned Fish?

@clintflint - If I've got a can of smoked fish handy I'll usually make a cheap version of the fish pie my mother used to make. She would never used tinned fish to make it, since it was a traditional meal and it required a particular kind of fish. And hers tastes much better, of course.

But in a pinch, if you're looking for meal ideas using canned fish, fish pie is very easy to put together. It's a pie in the sense of "shepherd's pie" in that you are basically mixing the ingredients and then topping them with mashed potatoes. Usually it needs smoked fish, eggs, potatoes, and mild vegetables like celery, and peas but people get inventive with it as well.

I don't know why but the flavors just come together really well and it was always my favorite dish when I was a kid.

@KoiwiGal - If I've got rice and tuna handy I will usually go for a tuna-rice casserole, as I've got a recipe that I love and have been using since I was in college.

I won't put the whole thing here, but basically you cook up a white sauce with onions and mix it with your canned seafood, eggs, cheese and rice. Then you let it bake for a while and it's quite delicious when it comes out and will serve a whole family for very little.

Smoked flavor fish is particularly nice in this recipe, and I experiment with adding different vegetables and seasonings as well.

I try to keep a couple of tins of fish in my cupboard as a backup for when I run out of fresh meat. Mostly I'll just whip up a simple tomato based dish with onions, whatever vegetables I happen to have handy, a tin of tomatoes and then add the fish at the last minute. Then I serve it over pasta or rice. It's not the most delicious meal in the world but it's easy, filling and it provides a good ratio of carbohydrates, fats and protein. Usually tuna or mackerel works well although you have to remember to add it at the end, just long enough to heat through, or the meal might be too fishy tasting, especially for kids.