A day before my graduation, I got craving for crab cakes. I avoided going out because it was snowing and also didn’t want to spend reminisce of my stipend. I improvised. I decided to make faux crab cake out of tuna and chopped clams lying in my pantry. Inspiration came remembering my cousin M’sha, who once whipped out kofta curry from canned tuna. I don’t know her exact recipe but she added some potatoes and garam masala to make affordable yet luscious kofta. It seemed very appropriate tribute to make a gourmet meal out of thin air for my last meal as a student.

Since I never made crab cakes and too lazy to google recipes, I reverse engineered my $20+ crab cake brunch. My recipe translated into following;

2 cans of 5-6 oz tuna
You can use and other canned fish. Here I used a can of tuna and chopped clams because that’s what I had in my pantry. Make sure not to throw out all the oily water from canned fish. You can use it for binding the fish cake.

3 tablespoon cream cheese
Adds creaminess!

⅓– ½ cup Italian style bread crumbs
Change quantity depending on the consistency of the cake batter and flavor.  Yes, you can taste your batter to check seasoning.

½ cup spinach
Just because my ma said I need greens in my diet.

Mix everything while cautiously adjusting amount of breadcrumbs. You need to get slightly more consistency than fresh cookie dough that can be shaped into a flat tuna cakes. Avoid grinding too much because it will remove flaky texture of the fish.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in pan over medium low heat.

Put cake and wait at least a few minutes before first turn (unless you suspect burning, then your heat is way high). Turn it once or twice more until you get a nice golden brown color.

Enjoy. PS. my cakes are darker brown because I like crunchy coating.

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Posted in: American Food | Tags: canned tuna, crab cake, grad student food