~ Another Way to Use Tuna....Tuna Cakes ~

My brother gave me a huge restaurant sized package of tuna that he bought in bulk  I was happy to take it, my family really likes tuna, but I've never had so much at once in one package that once it was opened, I needed to use it.  I've never frozen tuna before, so after we had the usual tuna salad (which my daughter made herself and it was quite delicious), I needed to find another way to use it because I didn't want it to go to waste.  Here's what I came up with.  Tuna Cakes.

I started my search on allrecipes.com and found a recipe for tuna cakes.  I liked the idea, so I read the recipe and the reviews.  Some reviewers noted that while the recipe as is tasted good, it lacked texture, so I decided to add some veggies to the mix, and changed a few other things around also.

~ Spicy Tuna Cakes ~

3 packages of tuna (drained if you are using canned tuna)
2 medium sweet potatoes, cubed, cooked until tender, and drained

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon hot pepper flakes

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1 teaspoon dried basil

1 Tablespoon minced onion or 1 finely chopped medium sized onion

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

1 celery stalk, finely chopped

A dash of pepper

A dash of paprika

First, prepare the dipping sauce in the recipe below and set in the refrigerator while preparing the tuna cakes.

Place cubed sweet potatoes into a large bowl and mash with a fork

Next, combine all ingredients to the sweet potatoes in the large bowl and mix until everything is incorporated.  Heat a large cast iron skillet and add about two teaspoons of oil (I use olive) and heat on medium high heat. Once the pan is hot, decrease the heat a bit.  Add tuna cakes and cook about 1-2 minutes each side.  These cook up quickly, so stay nearby so they don't burn. Transfer to a serving plate and set aside as the rest of the meal is prepared.  They heat up very nicely in the microwave if needed.

~ Dipping Sauce for Spicy Tuna Cakes ~

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/8 cup Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/8 teaspoon chili powder

Mix mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, and chili powder in small bowl and set place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

I made a side of zucchini from our first two zucchini's harvested from the garden!  Delicious!  Super fresh zucchini has a light sweet taste of corn.  I love it!  We just pan fried this in just a bit of honey butter, only about 1 or 2 teaspoons for two medium squashes.  This filled a large skillet.

I finished off the meal with a side of  Spanish rice I had in the pantry.  I often make our own rice, and stay away from the packaged stuff, but sometimes when time is short, I'll pull one of these out if I have any on hand.  I really need to not do that though, since the salt content is high in these packaged rices.  This morning, I'm feeling that salt in the form of puffy ankles!  Extra water today, and I have to come up with a plan for making a spice mix to use with our bulk uncooked rice!

The dipping sauce was a very nice touch to the tuna cakes, I would recommend making it.  There isn't much heat in this recipe either, even though there are hot pepper flakes and chili powder.  The tuna tones it down very nicely, just leaving a hint of heat.  You can add more hot pepper if you like.  I like things milder, my hubby likes things hot.  The compromise in this house is to make most recipes milder, and he can add extra heat as he likes it.  My kids ate this too without complaint, dipping sauce and all!  Enjoy.

Until next time...have a nice day!!  :)