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Are you looking for an easy and quick cheap meal that you can make in hostel kitchen or over a campfire?

Let me serve you up a plate of Tuna Patties. This main dish comes together with only four ingredients: a can of tuna, an egg, chopped onions, and bread crumbs.

Tuna Patties make a super supper that can be served with rice and a tossed salad. You can serve them alone, with wedges of lemon, or with a sauce (three recipes for sauces below). They are also great for sandwiches.

These Tuna Patties are a perfect quick and inexpensive meal for pescatarians, or Catholics who observe Fish Fridays during Lent or throughout the year. Other similar entrées are Seafood Chowder, Sardine Pasta, and Tuna-Zucchini Pasta. Of course, omnivores will enjoy these fish patties, too!

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TUNA PATTIES

Estimated cooking time: 5-10 minutes

For: pescatarians, omnivores

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Ingredients

1 tin (160 grams) of tuna

1 egg

¼ cup bread crumbs

1 small onion, finely chopped

½ teaspoon salt

Drain tuna, reserving the oil (in which you’ll fry the patties).

Mix together the tuna, egg, bread crumbs, onion and salt.

Form into three hamburger-sized patties.

Heat a skillet with a few tablespoons of the oil reserved from the tuna. Place in the patties and brown on each side.

Serve with one of the sauces below and/or with lemon wedges.

¡Buen provecho!

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Tips

• If using a large can of tuna (350 grams), then use 2 eggs and a bit more bread crumbs. This will yield five to six patties.
• This recipe may also be made with other tinned fish like salmon (salmón) or mackerel (caballa, macarela).
• Bread crumbs are called apandura or migas de pan in Spanish.
• You can make your own bread crumbs by taking stone-hard bread and “grinding” it in a blender (licuadora) or grating it.
• To kick a bit of a kick to your patties, add ½ teaspoon of finely chopped chili pepper or a pinch of red pepper flakes.

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Sauces

To 3 Tablespoons of mayonnaise, add:

• 1 Tablespoon chopped pickles;

 – or – 

• 1 Tablespoon finely chopped cilantro (culantro in some Andean countries), 1 Tablespoon finely chopped onion, a pinch of garlic powder and a pinch of paprika (or, if you prefer, chili or chipotle powder);

– or –

• 1 Tablespoon of ketchup (salsa de tomate, in many countries), to make a salsa golf. If you like, you can also add a dash of hot sauce, or a pinch of spices like cumin or garlic.

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To help you get around the kitchen while you’re on the road,

check these articles

– exclusively at Latin America Wanderer!

 

NAVIGATING THE KITCHEN – A Bilingual Guide to Kitchen Gear

IN THE KITCHEN : A Bilingual Glossary to Ingredients

THE KNAPSACK PANTRY