Home » Latest » Cooking & Food Experiences » Spiced Tuna Fishcakes

Spiced Tuna Fishcakes

2

InfoSearched 108 0 Cooking & Food Experiences

8.2

SaveSavedRemoved 1

Gordon Ramsay proves a tin of tuna can still turn into a proper supper in minutes.

In episode 18 of Channel 4’s Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course, titled “Simple Suppers” and originally broadcast October 3, 2012, Ramsay tackles one of the cheapest items in the store cupboard: canned tuna. Rather than treating it as an afterthought, he builds a Thai-spiced fishcake around it, using pantry staples most home cooks already have and skipping the crutches — breadcrumbs and flour — that usually hold this kind of dish together.

• Ramsay’s fishcakes contain no breadcrumbs or flour; beaten eggs alone bind the mixture, making the patties naturally gluten-free.
• The flavor comes from finely sliced water chestnuts, spring onions, grated ginger, chopped coriander, seeded red chili, and kaffir lime leaves, seasoned with Thai fish sauce.
• He shallow-fries golf-ball-sized patties in hot vegetable oil for just 1 to 2 minutes per side, then serves them with a quick dipping sauce of fish sauce, rice vinegar, lime juice, sugar, and coriander.

Starting With the Tin, Not the Fryer

Ramsay’s method begins before any heat touches the pan. He drains good-quality canned tuna through a sieve, deliberately going easy on the pressure so the fish doesn’t dry out and turn stringy. That restraint matters — squeeze a tin of tuna too hard and you’re left with dust instead of flakes, which is the difference between a fishcake with texture and one that falls apart in the pan.

It’s the same instinct for detail he brings to other budget seafood work on the series — the kind covered in Gordon Ramsay Attempts To Make Fish & Chips at Home in 10 Minutes, where speed never comes at the expense of technique.

Building the Mixture

Into the flaked tuna goes finely sliced canned water chestnuts for crunch, trimmed green onions, grated peeled ginger, chopped fresh coriander, finely chopped red chili with the seeds removed to keep the heat manageable, and finely sliced kaffir lime leaves for aromatic lift. Ramsay seasons the whole mixture with sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper, and a splash of Thai fish sauce before folding in beaten eggs, which do the binding work that breadcrumbs would normally handle.

No flour, no breadcrumbs — just tuna, crunch, chili and egg, compressed tight enough to hold its shape in the pan.

The compression step is where Ramsay gets particular. He presses the mixture tightly in his hands to force out excess moisture before shaping it into golf-ball-sized portions and flattening them into patties — a small move that keeps the fishcakes from steaming apart once they hit hot oil. Precise, deliberate cuts and handling like this are the same habits on display in Satisfying Knife Skills – Cut Potato l Chinese Recipes by Masterchef, where technique separates a good result from a sloppy one.

The Fry and the Dip

The patties go into shallow, hot vegetable oil over medium heat for just 1 to 2 minutes per side — enough to turn them golden brown and heat them through without drying out the tuna a second time. Ramsay pairs them with a dipping sauce built in the time it takes the fishcakes to cook: a pinch of sugar dissolved into Thai fish sauce, rice vinegar, fresh lime juice, and chopped coriander.

The whole point of the segment is that none of this requires a shopping trip. Canned tuna, a few aromatics, eggs, and a hot pan get a finished plate on the table in a matter of minutes, which is exactly the pitch “Simple Suppers” is built around — cooking that doesn’t ask for a restaurant pantry to taste like one.

Chunk Light Tuna in Water, 5 oz Each ~Lot of 9 Cans~ Fish Salad Ready Meal

$13.51

BUY NOW

eBay