That Tuna's Truly Tasty!

Another absence, but blame this one on the job, some repair work to my ceilings at home and some sinus trouble, which I haven’t completely evaded just yet. Trying the natural route with some herbal concoctions this time… I tell you, my daily life is certainly never without incident, hahahaaaa!

As soon as I was able to smell things again, I got myself into the kitchen to experiment, but all I had left was some mincemeat and cans of tuna, which I tend to stockpile… I think it’s my leftover army habit of keeping canned goods on hand for emergencies, along with a good, working can opener!

So, I declared that day Burger Day, creating beef burgers and tuna burgers. I have to tell you, that water packed tuna was just the ticket for this new burger recipe which I had been thinking about and carrying around in my head for quite some time.

The best part was hearing my daughter declaring these burgers her official favourite food from me; the icing on the cake was her eating patties without the bun. (Naked tuna, anyone?)

Here’s how it went down…

I opened up 4 small cans of Brunswick flaked water packed tuna and emptied them into my colander which I placed over a bowl.

Using my spoon, I pressed the tuna against the holes to get the excess water out, ‘cause I wanted the tuna as dry as I possibly could. (You’d be surprised how much water comes out of this!)

Now for the seasoning. I added in 1 tablespoon of fresh lemon juice, 1 tablespoon dried parsley, ½ teaspoon of red pepper flakes, a couple shakes of ginger powder, and a few dashes of Angostura bitters and mixed it up.

Next, I got 2 stalks celery, 1 carrot, a bunch of chive, 2 cloves garlic, a bunch of parsley, a couple sprigs of thyme and two cloves of garlic, which got chopped as finely as I could get it. the parsley was given a rough chop, the carrot was grated and the chive and celery were diced.

I added the parsley and about 2 tablespoons of cut chives to the tuna, which got mixed in before it went into the refrigerator.

Into my frying pan, with a tablespoon of olive oil went the carrot and celery. As they cooked down a bit, I then added the rest of the chives and the chopped garlic and gently stirred it all – you could just imagine the lovely scent coming from this!

All in all, it was cooked for about 5 minutes or so, after which it went into my bowl to cool (in the fridge for about 10 minutes). After that, into the tuna it went.

See how it looks? The next step was to add in 1 beaten egg and ½ cup of dried breadcrumbs. (Forgot to take a photo of that step, hahaaa!)

As you can see, once the egg and breadcrumbs went in, the texture changed dramatically. I used a 1/3 cup measure to scoop my patties. I had to wet my hands each time to shape the patties though – it’s a really fragile mix. After shaping, came dredging the patties in flour to coat them. Again, I had to wash my hands in between doing each one, because the flour stuck to my palms. So it was (1) wet hands, (2) shape patty, (3) toss in flour to coat, (4) sprinkle flour on top of patty, (5) pick it up gently, (6) carefully dust off excess flour, then (6) gently place on tray. Wash hands from goopy flour and tuna mix, then repeat.
After that, they went to the fridge, but I ended up putting them in the freezer for 10 to 12 minutes to firm up.

Next up, frying these babies.

Using a ¼ cup of vegetable oil, I heated my frying pan and placed four of them in. I had to be careful picking them up – I used my spatula because as you can see here, a couple of them cracked and they almost broke in half on their journey to the pan!

They were cooked for a minute or two on one side until they were a crispy golden brown, then gently flipped over and cooked for the same time on the other side. So good!

After cooking, they were placed on a platter. Heated up some regular burger buns, chopped a little lettuce and…

Voila! A deliciously cooked tuna patty, ready to be turned into a lovely burger.

Some honey mustard and ketchup competes the ensemble. Yuuuuuummmy!

And there it was, a deliciously seasoned tuna burger that was so tasty, they were even enjoyed on their own as well. My daughter is still begging me to make more of them. (I definitely will again!)

Next time, I’ll show you how the beef patties went down, so until then, take care of yourselves, and don’t forget to mind the pot!