Tuna Burgers with Wasabi Ginger Mayo

- Merrill

About a decade ago, when I was living in Boston and working as a personal chef, my cooking repertoire was a little different than it is now. Finger food abounded (I was catering a lot of cocktail parties), and my recipes were heavy on Asian flavors like lemongrass, cilantro and ginger. (My go-to guacamole was "Thai-inspired" and included fish sauce, scallions and the aforementioned lemongrass and ginger. It was actually pretty tasty.)

As we all do, I've now moved onto a different set of tried-and-true recipes. But recently I revisited my old stomping grounds for one evening and dug out a recipe for tuna burgers that I used to make all the time back in the old days -- both as sliders for cocktail party gigs and as normal, human-sized burgers for dinners with friends. I came across the original recipe in a Williams-Sonoma cookbook called Fresh & Light and fell in love with its clean, fresh flavors. Chopped sushi-grade tuna is mixed with fresh ginger and scallions, molded into patties, pan fried and then topped with cucumber, sprouts and a zippy pickled ginger and wasabi-infused mayonnaise.

I've altered the proportions over the years, upping the wasabi and fresh ginger, and I use a full egg instead of the recommended egg white, as well as regular mayo rather than fat-free. Instead of stopping at medium-rare, I like to cook the burgers just through -- I find that a little bit of heat makes the ginger and scallions really sing. And finally, I serve the tuna burgers on brioche rolls instead of the sesame bagels called for in the original -- they make for a much more delicate burger, and their richness is a nice complement to all the clean, fresh flavors.

Tuna Burgers with Wasabi Ginger Mayonnaise

Adapted from Fresh & Light

Serves 6

Tuna Burgers:

• 4 scallions, white and light green parts only, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup minced fresh ginger
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 1/2 pounds sushi-grade ahi tuna, chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 English cucumber
• 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
• 1 box broccoli or alfalfa sprouts
  
• 6 brioche rolls
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Wasabi Ginger Mayonnaise:

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons prepared wasabi
• 6 tablespoons finely chopped pickled ginger (the pink, sweet kind you get with sushi)
  
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See the full recipe (and save and print it) here.