Tuna Burgers

We hadn’t gone shopping in an age and the cupboards were pretty bare. We needed a pretty quick dinner and I decided to go with a tried and true fallback – tuna burgers. We’ve called them patties, croquettes, what have you, but they are beloved by my family and DH always is happy if I whip them up.

They don’t take long to prepare if you use a food processor and I like the consistency best this way. They are smooth and have a nice mouthfeel to them. I’ve added a secret ingredient that I find gives them a firm but delectable texture which is baking powder. The leavening adds height and improves the burger.

The trick to preparing them is oil spraying the pan and cooking on medium low heat with a loose cover so that they have time to cook and rise. It is critical not to fry them on high heat or they will be loose in texture and won’t rise and cook properly. It takes about 2-3 minutes on each side and gets crispy despite being covered. This is not a greasy, oily dish, this is not really fried. You can serve them on buns with ketchup, lettuce and pickles or as I did with mayo on the side decorated with some veggies.

First peel the onions and potatoes

Chunk the onion and toss in the food processor with the chopping blade. Chop roughly and then add the chunked potatoes (you first chop the onion to prevent the potatoes from browning). Whirl till slushy. Then add the tuna, egg, breadcrumbs and spices and baking powder. Chop till fairly smooth.

Allow to rest a bit and place a piece of parchment paper on the side of your stovetop. This way you form your burgers and prepare your pan one next to the other.

Then oil spray the pan, turn the heat to medium, place the burgers into the heated pan and cook with a cover loosely on top for 2-3 minutes on each side, flipping the burgers and re-covering them till nicely browned.

and when fully cooked, they are firm to the touch and taste.

These are delish and I have to smack people’s hands not to gobble them down as a snack but to eat properly as a dinner.

Tuna Burgers

one onion, peeled

2 medium large (not gigantic) potatoes, peeled

3 cans of tuna packed in water, well drained

2 eggs

1 1/3 cups panko breadcrumbs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions:

Chunk the onion, toss into food processor and chop roughly. Then chunk the potatoes and add to onion and chop together till slushy consistency. Add well drained tuna, eggs, breadcrumbs, salt, paprika and baking powder. Whirl together just till smooth, turn off, push down with a rubber spatula to catch all the ingredients. Let sit to allow breadcrumbs to absorb into mixture for 5 minutes. This will be a little loose. Don’t worry, that’s normal, try not to be tempted to put more breadcrumbs in otherwise final result will taste of breadcrumbs more than tuna and the consistency will be too dense. Lay down a piece of parchment paper, form patties and put them in rows to enable cooking one batch after another.

Take a skillet and oil spray, heat to medium and using a spatula, slip under the patties and slide into the skillet, this is better than using your hands since the consistency is soft and you don’t want the burgers to get “unformed”. Cook about four patties at a time with the burgers loosely covered with a cover. Cook on medium, not high, to enable them to rise and cook in the center, for 2-3 minutes, flip and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes, covered, on the other side. You should see them rise already on the first side, then you know you are cooking them at the correct temp and time.

These don’t need to drain on paper towels since they are not oily and greasy. So, bun them like burgers or plate them prettily, either way they are yum.