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Fish Friday: Rachel Ray’s Fresh Tuna French-Style Cheeseburgers

As with most of my recipes, this one was discovered on the gym treadmill TV.  Either they do a great job of filming everything to look oh so appetizing, OR I’m just so hungry and delusional from lack of oxygen to the brain that I think it looks better than it really does OR, of course, it really is as good as it looks!  Either way, I’m a media marketer’s dream because I’m easily swayed by media advertisement! 

This particular recipe definitely tasted as good as it looked and the hubby even said it was really good (he’s a man of few words so this was a compliment!).  The mustard spread was not for us though as it was very spicy/horseradishy (I think I may have burned some nose hairs during consumption).  Next time I will use plain mustard with the capers.  Some other notes about this recipe….tuna is dang expensive!  Next time I make this I will only make it when I find tuna steak on sale.  I paid $20.99 per pound at our local Wegmans!  Since I knew this was a first time recipe and that only 2 of my 4 family members were going to eat it, I only bought one tuna steak which was 3/4 of a pound and reduced all other ingredients in  half.  This was enough to make 2 burgers. 

tuna steak

I also omitted the cornichons (small pickle things) and used kaiser rolls instead of the brioche buns.  Too bad I’m not a great photographer to be able to capture the beauty of this burger.  🙂

tuna burger 3  

And my final note, when Rachel Ray says 3 minutes per side for rare tuna burgers, she means it.  Not a minute more.  Next time I will probably just sear for a minute per side because I think I did maybe 4 minutes per side (purely by accident because I was preoccupied) and the burgers were cooked through.

Enjoy!

Fresh Tuna French-Style Cheeseburgers

Ingredients

  • Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), for drizzling
  • 1 large shallot, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  • 1 1/2 pounds fresh tuna steak, coarsely chopped
  • 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence (2/3 palmful)
  • 1 teaspoon fennel pollen or ground fennel
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed (half a palmful)
  • Salt and pepper
  • 4 slices Gruyère cheese or 1 cup packed shredded Gruyère cheese
  • Celery leaves
  • Flat leaf parsley leaves
  • A small handful of torn basil leaves or tarragon leaves
  • 1/2-inch-thick slices of ripe tomato
  • 1/2 cup Dijon mustard or Dijonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons nonpareil capers or chopped capers
  • Sliced or chopped cornichons
  • Brioche buns, split

Preparation

In a small skillet over medium heat, sauté the shallot and garlic in a little EVOO to soften. Cool completely.

Place the tuna in a food processor and pulse into coarse ground meat. Place the tuna in a bowl and add the shallot and garlic, herbes de Provence, fennel pollen, celery seed, salt and pepper. Form four patties and reheat the skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of EVOO. Add the tuna burgers to the pan and cook for 3 minutes on each side for pink centers and 5-6 minutes to cook through. Top the patties with cheese after they are flipped; loosely tent the pan with foil to melt cheese.

Combine the Dijon or Dijonaise with capers in a small bowl.

Place cheeseburgers on the bun bottoms and top with a mixture of celery, parsley and basil or tarragon leaves, sliced cornichons and tomatoes. Slather the bun tops with Dijon or Dijonnaise. Set the bun tops in place and serve.