Day Three: Family recipe tuna burgers

So this recipe, with many optional extras, has been part of my weekly or fortnightly diet for many many years. I don’t remember how old I was the first time I ate a tuna burger made this way, but it’s a long long time ago, and it remains one of the few ways I like tinned tuna. As far as I’m concerned, a tuna casserole is something of an abomination, and as for putting the stuff on a pizza, I’m sure that’s what mummy and daddy tunas tell their offspring will happen to them if they are Bad Tuna.

So. To begin: very finely dice an onion, and dry fry it for a few minutes until it’s beginning to brown lightly.

In a bowl, break up the contents of a tin of tuna, quite finely, til it’s of a fairly uniform small fibres sort of consistency. Add about 3 dessert spoons of breadcrumbs (we’ve always just made our own from whatever leftover bread we have, allowed to dry out completely and then crumbled up), a teaspoon (heaped) of mustard – this time I used dijon mustard, and very nice it was too – and enough mayonnaise to bring the whole lot to a single ball. Leave it to set and mature for about 20 minutes.

Once you  have your mix ready, put some flour, a little paprika, and whatever other spices you fancy, on a plate. I used a bought spice mix that contains yummy things like seaweed, chilli, sesame seeds, lemon etc etc.

Beat an egg up in a small bowl – today I blew the egg, rather than cracking it, because I’m planning to paint some eggs for easter, and this seemed a good place to start accumulating empty, cleaned out shells.

And on a second plate, put a smallish heap of breadcrumbs. Enough to cover 4 smallish burgers.

Turn the mix into burger shapes (or patties, if you’re American. Probably, anyway) and dip them first in the flour (this helps the egg stick), then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. You can redip them in egg and crumbs, if you want them REALLY crispy. Then pop them in a heated pan. I added the merest smidgen of olive oil to the pan, to assist with the browning.

I tend to turn them every couple of minutes because that way I can make sure that they don’t become to browned (or “carbonised” as my mother calls it) and to ensure that you can just keep them for a moment on their edge, so that all the egg is cooked.

While I was waiting for the mix to mature, I cut up some peeled carrots, and put them, along with some frozen broad beans, into the steamer. I got this going at the same time as I put the pasta water on to boil.

I usually try to have everything ready at the same time, but today that meant that I inadvertantly sacrificed the perfection of the pasta. A little too al dente for me, sadly. It was bought filled tortellini, with spicy pepper and tomato, which I think went quite well with the spiciness of the flour layer in the burgers.

And there you have it:

Family recipe tuna burgers, with filled pasta and fresh steamed veg. Mum commented that she felt that the spiciness detracted from the taste of the tuna somewhat, but I didn’t agree – I felt that it was quite nicely balanced. I think she has more of an aversion to chilli than I do, though. Next time I do them for her, I’ll make sure I don’t add the chilli stuff, and might instead go down the lemony route with a bit of lemon zest in the mix, and a squirt of juice in there too. They’re also amazing with capers chopped very finely into the mix. Sweetcorn tastes good, but tends to result in a rather more delicate beast which will fall apart with one good prod, and sometimes you wind up with a frying pan full of little crunchy bits, which is fine with me, but doesn’t look so nice when you serve it. Anyway. It’s up to the cook in question.

Ona jateko gogoa (which I am assured by google translate means bon appétit in Basque.