Tuna "chiai" cake 鮪の血合いバーガー

The block of sashimi-grade tuna we got from Catalina Offshore products contained a dark red portion called "chiai" 血合い or blood line. This very dark meat is the least desirable part of the entire tuna. It has a strong gamy taste. Many sushi bars throw out this portion (or I imagine they may serve it to the employees) but, I have made two similar dishes using chiai, which were not bad. This time, I decide to make something totally different.

This was a starter dish. The amount of chiai from the one pound tuna block this time was not much. I could only make two small tuna patties or cakes.

Tuna chiai: I just chopped into small cubes.

I sautéed a shallot (one small, finely chopped) in light olive oil for few minutes. I placed it in a metal bowl to cool before I added the other ingredients which included finely chopped parsley (3 springs, finely chopped), ginger and garlic (grated 1/2 tsp each), store-bought mayonnaise (1 tbs) and panko bread crumbs (1 tbs).  I seasoned it with salt and pepper. I could have added more items such as lemon zest, hot pepper (either Tabasco or finely chopped jalapeño), but I restrained myself.

I made two equal sized patties and fried them in olive oil 2-3 minutes on both sides. I served it with mixed green and my salad dressing which is balsamic vinegar, mustard, olive oil and rice vinegar.

I was afraid that chiai may be too strong for this dish but the addition of a good amount of ginger and garlic really helped. This was a perfectly good use of scrap meat from the tuna block which would have been discarded in most circumstances.