Furikake Tuna Burger Recipe

At last!  The recipe. 

But before you take a peek… a warning that the instructions for Furikake Tuna Burgers only looks daunting.  Three stages! What the heck?  Isn’t bento making supposed to be easy?

No worries. 

I assure you it’s very quick to prepare and the outcome is delicious.  I promise.

Furikake Tuna Burgers

Ingredients

1st stage:

1 can tuna, I use water packed albacore

2 tablespoon mirin

1 tablespoon shoyu

2nd stage:

2 tablespoons breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons nori furikake

1 egg

1 stalk green onion chopped (optional)

cooking oil

3rd stage:

Corn starch or potato starch

more cooking oil

Assembly:

Drain the tuna and place in a hot non-stick skillet with the mirin and shoyu.  Stir constantly on high heat to break apart the tuna while allowing it to absorb the liquids.  The idea is to flavor the tuna while while removing the moisture without drying it out.   (Are you still with me?)

When all the liquid has evaporated and the tuna broken down, allow to cool in another container.  While that’s happening, clean and prep the skillet for grilling.  You’ll need just a light covering of oil  (stage 2) and medium-high heat.

When the tuna is cool enough to handle add the  remaining 2nd stage ingredients and mix well. 

Shape  into small burgers  (Oreo cookie size), add to the skillet and cover.

I cover the pan to keep them from drying out.  Check for browning every few minutes.  Flip them over when ready.  Again keep checking the other side for browning.  As you can see,  I probably waiting a smidge too long to flip this batch.  When both sides are cooked, remove from the pan and set aside to cool once again.

Next, clean and prep the pan once again for frying.  This time add a depth of a quarter inch of oil to the pan. You will definitely be frying these puppies.  As the oil is heating up, coat each patty in cornstarch.  Really get it on there by pressing gently for complete adherence.

The oil should be hot for frying before adding the coated patties.  They should sizzle.  Flip them over for even cooking until golden brown then remove for draining.  Eat as- is or allow to cool before packing in your bento.  You can also make a large batch to freeze for a bento-stash, keeping in mind that freezing causes soggy crusts.  An option would be to skip the frying stage until you’re  ready to use.

1 can of tuna yields approximately 7-8 tuna burgers.

Tips: The furikake is salty so no need to add extra salt or shoyu. You can substitute the breadcrumbs with cracker crumbs, panko and the like.  The goal of the recipe is to have a crisp outside texture with softer burger-like feel on the inside. Again, the process is very easy and despite the multiple stages, it doesn’t take longer than 25 to 35 minutes to complete.  As for cooking tools…I used 1 skillet, 1 bowl, 1 spatula, 1 pair of chopsticks, a spoon, and just one hand (to form patties)!  That’s it.

This snack bento cradles these cute little morsels along with musubi (two ways), tomatoes, orange slice and edamame.

This batch I made a few days earlier using the potato starch This previous bento also has the same.

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