Fried Tuna Patty

Here's a quickie for you guys. Fried tuna pattys. We almost never have sliced bread in my house. I know, it's kind of weird, but we mostly just eat sandwiches on rolls. Pretty much the only time we have sliced bread is when I want to make grilled cheese. One day I really wanted a tuna melt, but only had some bulkie rolls. So I decided to just fry up a patty of tuna instead and put that on a toasted roll. It turned out to have a fairly different flavor than a normal tuna melt. The browned tuna/mayo also got a nice crispy texture. How did I do it, you ask? Like this.

First, whip up your favorite tuna salad. I like a couple tablespoons of mayo, fresh black pepper, a pinch of salt, some thyme, a little yellow mustard and some dried onion. Yeah, dried. I actually like the flavor of the dried onion with tuna. The only time I use fresh onion is when I'm making a tuna/pasta salad. One thing with this method is you don't want it too dry or it will fall apart, or too wet or it will just slide all over the place. If it can mostly hold a puck shape you are fine. Now preheat a non-stick pan to medium or so. A little fat helps it to brown. I like bacon grease. Imagine that. Heh. Plop your patty on there. See how it's keeping it's shape? That's the goal. Press it down gently so it's getting good contact, let it sit for a couple minutes, then carefully flip it. You might want to use a spoon to help guide it onto the spatula. Even with a decent crust it's going to move around a bit. If you are doing two or three cans you could add an egg to it and it would hold its shape much better. It would probably give it a nice texture too. I think with just the one can it would be kind of weird though, so I've never done it. You could also bread it, but I like the flavor of the browned tuna, so I've never done that. Once both sides are brown I suggest covering it with the cheese of your choice. Now you can either cover the pan and let it melt... or put it on the bottom half of your toasted roll and stick it under the broiler till it's browned and delicious. That's how I do it. Then you just put any toppings like lettuce or potato chips on (neither of which I have, mores the pity) and the top of the roll. There you go, browned tuna patty-melt-thing. Now eat it. Mmmmm, sandwich.