Tuna Cakes

Inspired by this recipe

So I read about food every day and I bookmark all these recipes with thoughts of grandeur that I will make them all...  I love when my brain actually remembers what I have read!!

I didn't have a recipe, just a vague memory of the above recipe.  I remembered it had a mashed potato base and it had canned tuna (weird combo I know).  It tastes like fish cakes you get from a deep fry seafood palce (i know, i used to work in one!).  It's like fish flavored mashed potato and while that may not sound delicious, it totally is, kind of like how scrapple is like pig flavored mashed potato.

These patties have the crispy panko outside and a creamy flavorful filling with some crunch from the onion.  I love texture differences!  I'm eating them right now for breakfast and I am pretty stoked!


Ingredients:
3 medium size russet potato
1 medium onion
1 head of garlic
Handful of fresh herbs (dried will work as well)
Cayenne pepper
paprika
garlic powder
onion powder
old bay seasoning
~2 Tbs. butter
2 cans of tuna
2 eggs
2 handfuls of breadcrumbs (Panko preferred)
more breadcrumbs for breading (Panko preferred)
butter for frying
EVOO for frying


So here's what I did:
1) Dice up 3 potatoes and boil them until tender
2)Chop up one onion and one head of garlic and some cilantro or any fresh herb you have on hand.
3)Drain potatoes, put them back in the pot you boiled them in, add salt, pepper, cayenne, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, and a little Old Bay seasoning, add some butter and mash it up.  Let cool.
4) When mashed potatoes are cool, mix in breadcrumbs, tuna, and eggs, if it is too wet, put more breadcrumbs in there, too dry, add some water/stock.
5)Form this mixture into patties, then bread them.  Stack them neatly and then put them in the freezer to set for 20 minutes.  This helps the breadcrumbs stick to the patties while frying and it helps keep the patties together while cooking.
6)I cooked these in some EVOO and 2 Tbs of butter, flip only once, anymore and these suckers will fall apart, think crabcake for this one.  Let  these patties cook and completely brown on one side.  Don't be afraid to add more oil and butter to the pan, the panko really soaks up all that goodness and gives it such a nice crunch and texture difference.

I hope you all make this, or some variation of this.  I am sure you can make this as potato pancake without the tuna.  You could add peas and make it indian spiced, you can make straight up potato, but make sure to add enough bread crumbs to bind your mixture.