Tuna patties! Or fish cakes, whichever you want to call it, these are only small little things though, and I remember them as being one of my first introductions to eating seafood, and to this day, they're one of my favourite ways to. I am not a fan of things that swim as being food, and eating five prawns (shrimp if you prefer, whichever) in one sitting is like, a LOT. So! This is fairly simple to make, just slightly fiddly and time consuming.
For this you will need;
500g tinned tuna (the largest tin available, basically, the more tuna you have the 'better' it tastes)
1 brown onion
2 cups plain flour
3 eggs (or so)
3 cups breadcrumbs
6-8 medium potatoes
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup of milk
1 Tbsp sour cream
Mixed herbs
garlic powder
dried parsley
First up, peel the potatoes, and slice them in half length wise, before slicing each half into thirds cross wise. So that each peeled potato is essentially cross-hatched into roughly equal parts. Put them in water for boiling. Once boiled, and cooked -- You stab a piece of potato, in the pot, with the tip of a knife. If it sinks in easily then the potato is cooked, if there is still firmness, or the potato feels 'crispy' then it is not completely done yet. Be mindful that boiling water has bubbles, and if there are bubbles under the piece of potato you are stabbing, it will provide resistance and 'pretend' that it is not cooked -- drain the water from the pot. Tilt the lid to set it in the edge of the pot, so that you hold the potatoes within and pour out the water. Mind the steam!
Put the butter in and the milk, and start mashing. Once it is smooth, add in the sour cream (this is taken from an earlier recipe I have already done, courtesy of someone online; OMG potatoes) and mash it some more. You want a very 'firm' potato mash, so less is more in this respect. It doesn't really matter if this cools down, which is why I haven't mentioned timing for when to do other things.
In any case, when your pot starts boiling, (if you wish) top, tail and peel the onion, a slice into the side to get through the first layer of the skin, and remove that and the brown paperyness, like this;
Use your thumb to slip into the slice made in the side, it doesn't matter if you haven't nails, and peel that outermost layer of flesh off of the onion. Cut the onion in half, slice and dice it. If you can't get them all the same size, it doesn't matter so long as it is small and finely chopped, how you get from a whole onion to little bits of onion is entirely up to you, but it is fun to feel clever doing the 'chef thing'. Tip of knife to cutting board, and slaughter the helpless onion with the base of the blade, keeping the tip on the board with your other hand.
Fry up the onion so that it is soft and no longer 'white' but transparant. Or, if you can't tell the difference, simply make sure that the onion is lightly brown on one side (shh, it's not because I slightly forgot about it, really) and tip the fried onion into the mash. Stir it around -- stir mind, not mash -- so that it is evenly stirred in.
Open the tin of tuna, drain the juice into a glass (if you want to drink it, mmm) or a container (instant tuna stock!) and tip the tuna flakes into the mix, break it up with a fork, and mix it through the potato, trying to get as even a mix as possible. Add a light seasoning with the herbs, two or so shakes from the jar will be plenty, which is perhaps, around half a teaspoon? Again, less is more, the herbs will make the mix exceedingly bitter if you use too much. As much garlic powder as you desire, one teaspoon of powder is roughly equal to one garlic clove, supposedly, I have just found that the powder is a lot more strongly flavoured.
Now we get to get messy!
Two bread and butter plates, one dinner plate, and one flat-bottomed bowl. The dinner plate is to hold the 'raw' patties, the bowl is for the eggs and the two dinner plates are for flour and breadcrumbs respectively. Put the eggs in the bowl, and using a fork, whisk them thoroughly together, yolk and white, so that it is one uniform colour, without patches of one part, or the other of the egg visible.
See how there's a fork in the eggs? This is for a very good reason. The patties are a pain in the butt to turn over, and coat in the egg, so if you plop them on the fork, all you have to do is pick up and turn over. So much easier. Ahem. I'm getting ahead of myself, however.
Get a tablespoon (or soup spoon, you know, the stuff you eat with) and use it to portion out the mix. One, to one and a half tablespoons per patty, heaped up, just so they are roughly the same size. Put it into your palm, roll and shape and toss it back and forth before putting it in the flour. Coat it on both sides with the flour, gently patting it in.
This gives the egg something to stick to. Remember that fork mentioned? Put the patty on the fork in the egg, swish it around a little (gently, remember, these things are slightly fragile and may fall apart on you) turn it over and do the same, just make sure that all the flour on the patty is eggified. Scoop it out of the egg with the fork, let it drain of excess egg, and put it in the breadcrumbs. Same deal as with the flour, pat the crumbs in, coat it evenly, and gently toss off the excess before placing the patty on the dinner plate.
Lather rinse repeat until you are out of the mix. Don't stress if you need more egg, flour or breadcrumbs, it's a bit hit and miss with the measurements of those, but hey, it doesn't exactly matter.
Heat up a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, and put as many patties as you can fit (with room for flipping) in the hot oil. Now, you aren't cooking the mix again, you're just cooking the crumbing on the outside. Fry each patty until it is a light golden brown (or darker, just so long as it's not black) replenishing the oil between batches as necessary.
Serve hot or cold, they're equally delicious. A touch of tomato sauce (ketchup) can really compliment the flavour. They're easy (ish) to make, and you get to make a HUGE MESS with the crumbing proceedure.
Deliciousness Delivered.
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