Broiled Mini Tuna Burgers

Did you know the first burgers were made in Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut. Now, it's one of the mostly widely know and loved food all around. I've mentioned this before when I posted the 10 fun food facts for the month of April. Their burgers are flame broiled and served between two slices of toasted white bread with cheese, tomato and onion as a garnish. No ketchup allowed. It's frowned upon. I'm serious with that last sentence, which makes me want to visit the place even more.

What does that have to do with these burgers? Absolutely nothing. Thought I'd share that with you all. No...wait...I lied. Back up a bit. Ok, so I had made a mini loaf of pan de sal over the weekend. I didn't have enough room on the baking pan and thought it'd be cute to make a mini baby loaf. For those interested, I got my mini-loaf pans at Sur La Table. I bought 4 for $2 each. It's a 2"x4" size. They do look cute when the bread comes out of the oven. You just want to go "aww...".

I wanted to make crostinis with it, but I didn't really have an idea what to top it with. I got a craving for tuna, yet I didn't want it on my usual salad fix. I cut loaf into 1/8-inch slices and as I did, burgers came into mind. I had some grape tomatoes left in the fridge as well as a block of manchego cheese.

I decided to made a simple sweet and sour sauce for the "ketchup". Mixed up the tuna with an avocado instead of mayo and added some sweet relish, panko crumbs and some ground pepper.

You can make the regular sized version of these burgers. Just double up the ingredients and use regular sized bread. Adjust broiling time accordingly. These fit me just right. You can use them as starters, too.

Makes 7 mini burgers.



Broiled Mini Tuna Burgers

1 7oz can tuna in oil.
4 tsp sweet relish
1 small avocado
1 c panko crumbs
pepper
14 small slices of bread
grated cheese
4 grape tomatoes (sliced)
sweet and sour sauce


Preheat your broiler.

Make the sweet and sour sauce. This can be done ahead of time and will keep for a long time in the fridge.

Drail most but not all the oil from the tuna. Mix in the sweet relish, avocado and panko crumbs. Season it with some pepper.

Mold the tuna mixture in 7 small patties. Place on an ungreased baking sheet.

Toast the slices of bread either in the toaster oven or the conventional oven for 5 min.

Put into the broiler for roughly 10-15 min then flip and cook the other side for another 5-10 min. You want to see a good char crust on it. 2 min before removing sprinkle the cheese over the patties and let it melt into gooey goodness.


Putting it together:
Spread some of the sweet and sour sauce on both slices of bread. Top with the tuna patty and tomato slices.