by Ethan Johnson
August 13, 2006

In our last episode (the one with the Tuna Burgers), I took a shot at making burgers from tuna meat. Since that time, I came across a food blog called Beyond Salmon. The author suggested bluefish over tuna as bluefish is apparently much cheaper in the Boston area. However, as a word to the wide down here in Texas, the opposite is true. Tuna steaks are running on average $10/lb USD (worst case, at the expensive stores, $20), whereas bluefish is very rarely sold down here, for reasons unknown. I found it at the expensive place, and it ran about $12/lb. And yes, hamburger meat goes for about $3/lb here. I'm so committed to providing premier content here at ethmar.com that I bought a filet anyway and now can speak intelligently as I venture forth into:

Fish Burgers Revisited

OK: Since we did tuna burgers already, the following are essentially the "cook's notes" that should help fill in any gaps left by the previous recipe. Refer to the original recipe and note the following. I will cite the step number as needed.

Ingredients: The big change here is that I used bluefish (roughly 1 pound) instead of tuna. Additionally, further testing suggests that Lebni could be used in lieu of yogurt, for more "tang". Lebni is generally available wherever fine Middle Eastern foods are sold. Greek yogurt could be another possibility, and is available in more stores. Finally, use ye olde yogurt, but add sour cream as a condiment to add "zip". Squeezing lemon juice into the mixed ingredients is another alternative. Whatever yogurt you choose, use about 1 1/2 cups per pound of fish to bind the mixture and keep the patties from being too dry.

Bluefish prep: If you do indeed find bluefish to be cheaper than tuna, have at it. The filet I bought looked like this:

The skin was left on thanks to an obstinate fish counter clerk, but I removed it fairly easily. There are bones jammed into the filet like needles, which I had to remove by hand. I made two piles: The good fish meat, and the bones/grey gunk:

I chopped up the good filet meat and added it to my yogurt/chipotle mix, as seen in Step 9 of the Tuna Burgers recipe. The consistency of bluefish is hard to describe; I'm going with "mushy". I can see why Helen at Beyond Salmon likes this fish for burgers, as opposed to tuna, which is chunkier.

Step 17: Note that I am using a smaller bowl since 2 lbs of tuna was indeed overkill.

I put the finished mixture into the fridge for about 2 1/2 hours.

Step 20: 1 pound of bluefish (ish) yields 3 patties. Get less to make less, get more to make more.

Step 22: Because of all of the mixed ingredients, it is not easy (for me, at least) to determine when the burgers are "done". With sashimi-grade tuna, theoretically it's OK to eat raw, so less cooking isn't going to hurt anything, theoretically. I don't believe bluefish has the same street cred. I cooked the patties in a grill pan until they were just starting to flake apart. That seemed to be a good rule of thumb. Try it, and cook a little longer if you're not convinced as to doneness.

Finale: As seen at the top of this page, I opted to make my fish burger a "wrap" instead of serving it on a bun. Just cut the patty in half and line it up in the center of a tortilla and wrap it up like a burrito. I added a strip of mayo for yuks.

The trick with this recipe is to make enough for 4 people to really make it worth the expense. I don't recommend fish burgers (tuna or otherwise) for "just" 1-2 people, although Mar and I thought of this latest attempt as a simple luxury, as summer fare goes. Mar noted that there isn't a "fishy taste", so if you're on the fence about trying this, or know someone who is, cook and eat with confidence.

I plan to experiment with other types of fish, shooting towards the lower end of the price spectrum. If you beat me to it, let me know how it turned out. Thanks! <EM>