Fish for Friday here with my favorite recipe for Tuna Patties. These are the best Tuna Patties and the good news is I have downsized the recipe to feed only two.
Tuna was not something we really had in our home when I was growing up. Then one day in Grade 8 my friend Cindi and I were eating our lunches prior to band practice and she moaned about having a tuna sandwich.
I think I might have had ham salad or some such. She thought my lunch looked better and so we traded. I fell in love with tuna sandwiches right then and right there!
Mom had always bought salmon for us to use in sandwiches, but she had never bought tuna. When I told her how much I had enjoyed Cindi's tuna sandwich, she started to buy tuna for us to have in sandwiches from time to time.
Mom always mixed pickle, onion, a bit of celery and mayonnaise in the tuna sandwiches that she made for us. Much the same as she did for the salmon ones. We were fans of both!
Something like this might not be super practical for the larger family, but they do make a fine supper for the smaller family, and they are quite simply perfect for two people.
You get two servings out of one tin of tuna, which makes two tuna patties. For a larger family you will need to double the ingredients.
This could be rather expensive if you are like me and only use Albacore tuna. I think Albacore gives you the best flavor and I like it. I just think it tastes better.
Albacore tuna shares many of the same nutritional advantages as other types of tuna. It’s a rich source of complete protein, selenium and vitamin B-12. It is also better source of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids than other tuna species.
Having said that, you go ahead and use whichever tuna it is that you enjoy, and that you can afford to buy. Using Albacore tuna is only a personal preference that I have.
What I also love about this recipe is that it is very easy to throw together at the last minute. Its a great store cupboard recipe.
I always, ALWAYS have the ingredients needed to make them in my larder or cupboards. Nothing spectacularly unusual is needed to make them. Only simple ingredients.
That's the way I like to cook most of the time, using simple ingredients and simple methods!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE TUNA PATTIES
You only need a few simple store cupboard friendly ingredients to make these delicious patties.
- tinned albacore tuna
- mustard (I like Dijon)
- fresh lemon (the zest and the juice)
- some fresh or dried herbs
- 1 spring onion/scallion
- an egg yolk
- half a slice of bread
- seasoning
- tabasco sauce
- butter and light olive oil to shallow fry
All of these ingredients are mashed together and then shaped into patties. Its a very easy thing to do to shape them into patties.
Just divide the mixture into equal halves and shape each half into a ball. Then flatten each ball into a patty shape.
Once shaped I like to place them onto a place and cover with a bit of cling film and then chill them for an hour or so. This helps them to stay together better when it comes to frying them.
It also means that you can mix everything up, shape and then chill, ready to pop into a skillet at the end of the day when you get home from work. The perfect make ahead!
I like to fry them in a mix of light olive oil and butter. There is not a lot of butter in the mix, only 1/2 teaspoon, but it does add to the flavor.
They taste like you have used so much more. Trust me on this.
I only ever use light olive oil for cooking. This is not extra virgin olive oil, which comes from the first pressing, but it is still olive oil and good for you.
In any case there is not a lot of either the oil or the butter. Just enough to do the job and give some flavor.
You can use either fresh herbs in these or dried. I don't have as many fresh herbs available to me here, so I tend to use dried most of the time. When they are being used in a dish such as this, it really doesn't matter.
Obviously there are other times when you will need to use fresh.
It doesn't take very long for them to cook. You only want to cook them until they are golden brown on both sides. Try not to rush it by having the heat up too high or you will burn your butter.
Burnt butter does not taste nice. You cannot rush a good thing.
These tasty patties are excellent served with my homemade tartar sauce. I love this sauce. Its so much tastier than ready made. You can find my recipe for Homemade Tartar Sauce here.
It seriously is the best Tartar Sauce ever. It is a recipe I learned to make when I was working at the Manor. I used to make them homemade Cod Fish Cakes for supper sometimes on a Friday and I always made this sauce to go with them.
Not a fan of tartar sauce? Not to worry. These also go great with wedges of fresh lemon for squeezing over top!!
They are also really good served in a bun as a type of burger.
I enjoyed mine today with some mac and cheese and leftover vegetables from last nights dinner. All in all this was a very tasty supper for myself! I hope you will give them a go too!
Tuna Patties for Two
Yield: 2 servings
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 10 Mininactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 20 M
Quick, easy, and sized perfectly for two people. You can enjoy these simple tuna patties with a wedge of lemon to squeeze over top, or with some delicious homemade tartar sauce! They are delicious both ways!
Ingredients
- 1 (5 to 6 ounce)(140-170grams) tin of albacore tuna
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 tsp olive oil (use only if using water packed tuna)
- 1/2 slice of white bread torn into small pieces
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest (I use my fine microplane grater)
- 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 TBS water or juice from tin of tuna
- 1 TBS chopped fresh flat leaf parsley (or 1/2 TBS dried)
- 1 TBS finely chopped green onion
- 1 large free range egg yolk
- salt and black pepper to taste
- Tabasco sauce to taste
- 1 TBS light olive oil
- 1/2 tsp butter
To serve: (optional)
- Fresh lemon wedges
- tartar sauce
Instructions
- Drain your tuna well, reserving liquid. Flake the tuna into a bowl. Add the olive oil and 1/2 TBS of the tuna liquid. Mash well together.
- Add the bread, lemon zest, lemon juice, mustard, parsley, chives, hot sauce and seasoning. Mash well together and then taste. Adjust seasoning as necessary and then stir in the egg yolk.
- Divide the mixture in half and shape into two balls. Flatten each ball into a patty and place onto a plate. Refrigerate for one hour.
- Heat the olive oil and butter over medium high heat in a non-stick skillet. Once the butter begins to foam, add the tuna patties. Brown nicely on both sides, approximately 3 to 4 minutes per side.
- Serve hot with your lemon or tartar sauce.
It's that time of year again! Pumpkin season. The time of year that we all enjoy baking with pumpkin. Nothing says Autumn more than a pumpkin bake, and this simple recipe makes for the best pumpkin bread you could ever want to eat!
It's an adaptation of a recipe I received from my Canadian Mother-in-Law back in the 1970's. It started off pretty plain and basic, but through the years I have gradually fiddled with it to create something of my own.
It was moist and pretty delicious back then, but I have to say it is even more delicious now! And I don't mean to sound like I am bragging when I say that, but it's true.
When I first moved over to the UK tinned pumpkin was a very difficult thing to find in the shops. I remember the first year I was there I had invited some Missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner and I wanted to make them a traditional pumpkin pie for dessert.
I could not find pumpkin anywhere at all. I ended up roasting sweet potatoes and pureeing them to use for the pie. It worked out well, but it was not really pumpkin pie.
Then when I worked at the Manor, I used to use pumpkin which I bought from an American food supply company. It came at a premium price but was worth every penny to me at the time.
Gradually pumpkin became more and more available and by the time I left there you could pretty much buy tinned pumpkin most of the time and in many of the shops.
You can of course make your own pumpkin puree from scratch, but it is very labor intensive to get it to the right consistency. You need to first roast your pumpkin.
Then you need to puree it. Once pureed you then need to strain it and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. This is where all of the labor comes in. Tinned pumpkin is very dry and if you don't get your homemade pumpkin puree just as dry, the integrity of your bakes will be ruined.
It is just so much less work to use the ready tinned pumpkin. Trust me on this. Tinned pumpkin comes in handy for many things. Pies, cakes, cookies, breads, etc.
My boss at the manor used to ask me to make pumpkin soup with it every American Thanksgiving.
This pumpkin bread recipe makes the best pumpkin bread ever and that is all down to my mother-in-law's secret ingredient, which is frozen orange juice concentrate. Yes, frozen orange juice concentrate. This was not something I could get in the UK either, but it was an ingredient that I learned to adapt.
You can do this either one of two ways. One, you can take fresh orange juice and boil it down to make a very concentrated form (again, labor intensive) or two, you can take a fresh orange (peeled and segmented) and puree it in a blender until smooth.
I will choose to puree the fresh fruit over boiling down juice every time. It is just so much easier and quicker. In any case, don't skip it because it is what makes this an incredibly tasty and moist loaf!
There is also plenty of spice in the loaf, but not obnoxiously so. My mother-in-law used to just add cinnamon to hers. I added some nutmeg and ground cardamom, which we always loved. I also added some vanilla.
On a side note, now that the kittens are jumping up onto things they are a bit of a nuisance when it comes to taking my food photos. haha. Not quite the same as Mitzie. She liked to hold onto the edge of the table and watch.
She couldn't actually jump up onto the table. I think I must have had to take this little monkey down a bazillion times while I was taking these photos. I think it's time to buy a squirt bottle.
My mother-in-law used to add raisins to her pumpkin bread. I switched them out for dried cranberries a number of years back. Cranberries are a very autumnal thing, and the dried ones work very well in this delicious pumpkin bread!
You can also use dried cherries (chopped) or even toasted walnuts, pecans or yes, even chocolate chips. Also raisins if you want. I love this with the cranberries.
I know that everyone thinks their pumpkin bread is the best, but I think mine is the very best and that is for a number of reasons. One it always turns out. I have never had this fail.
Two, it is incredibly moist and dense, without being soggy. This means that it cuts into perfect slices every single time.
Three it is very family friendly, not too spicy and not too sweet. I know that young mums want to make sure their children are not eating too much of the sweet stuff. This loaf has a perfect balance.
Another reason that I really love this loaf is because it is totally freezable. You can make it ahead, or make several loaves of it when you have the pumpkin and freeze them.
I like to cut mine into slices and place the loaf, pieced back together with a piece of wax paper in between the slices and the whole thing popped into an airtight freezer container. That way I can take out a slice as and when I want to indulge myself.
It will keep for several months this way. I can tell you it is really awfully nice to have this in the freezer ready to take out when a friend stops by unexpectedly. 10 seconds or so in the microwave and you have something incredibly tasty to enjoy with a hot drink.
Or course like any true Nova Scotia gal I enjoy mine sliced and spread with softened butter. That's how I like all of my quick breads like this one.
Banana bread, date and nut loaf, even lemon loaf. I know it is a bit hedonistic, but you only live once.
I really hope that you will bake this loaf and that you will enjoy it as much as I do. To me, it's quite simply, the Best Pumpkin Bread ever invented.
It's even better on the second day. In fact I usually bake it on one day and leave it to ripen overnight before cutting into it. It always cuts into beautiful slices and the flavor is even better on the second day. Trust me however, first day, second day, even third day, you are going to love this delicious pumpkin bread!
Pumpkin, Orange & Cranberry Bread
Yield: 8
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 60 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This easy and delicious loaf is an annual autumn favorite. I got the recipe from my mother in law many years ago. It’s the best pumpkin bread recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250g) pumpkin puree (from the tin, not pie filling)
- 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup (120ml) canola oil
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 TBS frozen orange juice concentrate, undiluted (see note)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 3/4 cup (245g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup (75g) dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper, leaving an overhang to lift the finished loaf out with when done.
- Whisk the eggs, sugars, oil, orange juice concentrate, pumpkin puree and vanilla together in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder, spices and salt until combined. Add all at once to the wet ingredients. Stir everything together just to combine and no dry streaks remain. Stir in the cranberries.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking tin, smoothing over the top.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before lifting out to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
Notes:
If you cannot get orange juice concentrate. Peel and segment a large orange. Puree the orange in a food processor until smooth and measure out three TBS.
I was looking for something quick and easy to make for supper today, plus I was also kind of craving Chinese food of some kind, any kind. I didn't necessarily want to pay the high prices of buying a meal from our local Chinese restaurant however.
And to be honest the last few times I have gotten a meal from there, I have found it disappointing. Could it be possible that my tastes have become Briticised? Its probably highly likely I suppose!
I used to love to get a Chinese meal from our local restaurant when I lived here before, but I found their food to be quite bland now. Eileen picked me up one while I was in Quarantine last November, and I bought some for the three of us a few weeks ago when Eileen and Tim were here for supper one night.
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Anyways, I decided to wing it and make a simple Orange Chicken recipe for myself here at home. I did size the recipe to feed just two people and I can tell you that it turned out gorgeous!
I was really pleased with both the chicken and with the sauce. I will be upfront and tell you that I have never had Orange Chicken from a restaurant. Its not something I have seen here where I live.
Sweet and sour maybe, but not Orange. I have heard however that it is a very popular dish in a lot of Chinese restaurants and I was keen to try it myself.
I did a search online for a recipe and found quite a few that were very similar, but with small differences between each. I didn't want to use orange marmalade in my chicken.
I wanted it to be sweet, but I didn't want it to be too sweet, nor did I want bitter. Nix the marmalade.
I did want a nice orange flavor however with a bit of a sour tang to balance out any sour. So, a sweet and sour, but with orange flavors.
I ended up cobbling together a few different recipes to make a delicious entrée, built specifically for just two people.
It has a fresh orange flavor and a slight sweetness, but not overly so. At the same time it is garlicky and tangy, a bit gingery and there is a tiny bit of heat.
I chose to use chicken breast meat. I knew I would be flash frying it so I wasn't too worried about it really drying out. I didn't want to use chicken thigh meat which is greasier.
Chicken breast meat is a much healthier option. If you want to, however, use chicken thigh meat, by all means do so. Just know that it will take slightly longer to cook it until it is no longer pink inside.
I know a lot of people prefer the thigh meat over the breast, and admittedly it does have a gamier flavor than the breast. This is due to it being from a part of the chicken that works a lot harder.
Many people worry about the breast meat being too dry. Trust me, if you do not overcook it, it will not be dry. I promise.
My timings are pretty concise, and calculated to cook small bites of chicken breast to perfection. If you aim to have your chicken pieces all cut uniformly in size, or as much as you can do so, they will all cook in the same amount of time.
The sauce is a beautiful mix of oriental flavors (aside from the orange juice). Use fresh orange juice if you can, but a good bottled orange juice will also work well.
In addition I have used soy sauce. I like Kikkoman fermented light soy sauce. It is brewed and not overly salty.
The sweetness comes from the use of some brown sugar, not a lot. Just 1 TBS. You can use the equivalent in Honey or even white sugar if that is what you would prefer.
This is balanced out with a bit of sour which comes from the use of Chinese rice wine vinegar. This is usually seasoned, and soy sauce is also a bit salty, so do be judicious when it comes to adding salt!
To give it a bit of zing I have added some powdered ginger. You could add fresh gingerroot in its place, but you will need to add twice as much.
I did not want to cloud the sauce with bits of things, so for this reason chose to use the powdered ginger and also garlic granules rather than fresh.
I added a tiny bit of heat by using a small amount of crushed red chili flakes. You can leave this out entirely, or you can amp it up if you are fond of heat. It is really up to you how much you use.
I don't like my food to bite me back, so I really use this ingredient with caution.
I also think that a really great Chinese dish deserves a really great garnish. It doesn't get much better than spring onions, or scallions as they are also called. Very finely sliced and scattered over top with a bit of sesame seed for contrast. Perfect.
I served with some steamed jasmine rice and broccoli. It was a delicious, delicious meal. I think you will agree with me if you chance to cook it yourself. If you are wanting to feed more people, it is very easy to double the ingredients as well! Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!
Chinese Orange Chicken for Two
Yield: 2
Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 40 Min
Nothing could be easier than this delicious make at home version of a Chinese Take out favorite!
Ingredients
For the chicken:
- 2 large egg whites
- 1 TBS cornstarch (corn flour)
- 2 medium boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
- 4 TBS canola oil for frying
For the orange sauce:
- 1/2 cup (120ml) orange juice, divided
- 1 TBS soy sauce
- 1 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1 TBS seasoned Rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1 TBS finely grated orange zest
- 1/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- pinch of salt
- pinch of crushed red chilies
- 1 tsp cornstarch (corn flour)
To serve and garnish:
- 1 spring onion, washed trimmed and thinly sliced
- 1/4 tsp sesame seeds
- steamed jasmine rice
Instructions
- First make the chicken. Whisk the cornstarch and egg whites together with a fork until almost frothy. Add the chicken and stir it into the mixture to coat all the chicken pieces well. Leave to sit for 5 to 10 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Add the chicken pieces one at a time to prevent them from sticking to each other. Cook, gently moving them around for 2 to 3 minutes until light golden brown. Scoop out onto a plate lined with paper towels and keep warm.
- Make the sauce by whisking the 1/4 cup (60ml) orange juice, soy sauce, orange zest, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, salt, crushed red peppers, garlic and ginger together in a saucepan. Bring to the boil and allow to bubble for 3 to 4 minutes until the flavor are well melded together.
- Whisk together the remaining 1/4 cup (60ml) of orange juice and the corn starch. Whisk this mixture into the sauce mixture and cook, whisking constantly until the sauce begins to thicken. Cook for several minutes.
- Stir the chicken into the sauce, to coat it well.
- Serve immediately spooned over rice. Garnish with some sesame seed and sliced spring onions.
All nutritional data is calculated by the recipe card program and may not be entirely accurate.
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