Maangchi's Tuna Pancake

When I hear the word tuna, all I can think of are the ones that comes in cans.

I don't know whether to feel embarrassed or not but as far as I can remember, I think I have never -in my entire 20 years of living- eaten fresh tuna. 

Or have I?

Maybe they have a different name back in Indonesia?

Does sushi counts? - I highly doubt it. 

Somebody needs to help me to figure things out about this fishy thing.

Anyway, canned tuna is my go-to-thing whenever I'm on a tight budget & need some kind of protein that will not go bad quickly (long live the long shelf life of those canned tunas!)

As much as I like canned tuna, I hate how fishy it smells once I opened the can. 

It's teribble.
I can seriously imagine the smell in my head right now. URGH.

That's why I can't eat them straight from the can. 

I've met people who eat them straight from the can several times. 

I know one of my friend who eat it straight from the can, but she eats the one with mayo, which is still acceptable in my book since I do eat tuna sandwich every now and then
(although I prefer to pan fry the tuna a little bit and then mix it with mayo). 

But the ones in brine are disgusting. 

Ironically, I usually buy the ones in brine..

but I always cook them first.

Here's my take on Maangchi's Tuna Pancake with slight variations ;)

Tuna Pancake
Adapted from Maangchi's Korean Cooking Blog

Ingredients

• 1 can of tuna in brine (185 gr)
• 1/2 medium sized brown onion (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1/4 cup of diced red capsicum
• a few stalks of green onions (chopped)
• 1 egg
• 2 tbsp flour
• 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• salt & pepper to taste
• a few drops of water (as needed)
• cooking oil to fry

1. Heat some cooking oil on low heat and sauté the diced onions until it turns translucent and soft, set aside. 

2. Drain the tuna well with a paper towel / cheese cloth (or if you're like me, I just open half of the can and press the lid against the tuna to squeeze out the water) and mix it with sauted onion, garlic, capsicum and green onion in a clean bowl.

3. Add the egg, flour, sesame oil, salt and pepper and mix well. If it's too dry, add a splash of water to the mixture.

4. Heat cooking oil on medium heat and add spoonful of tuna mixture one by one to the pan and cook one side for 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Flip the pancake and cook the other side.

5. Transfer the tuna pancake on paper towel to drain the excess oil

6. Serve warm with rice.

Originally, the recipe doesn't tell us to saute the onions, but I prefer cooked onions in mine.
I've made this dish multiple times and I have to admit that I did screw up a few.
One of the worst thing I did was adding too much flour and making the pancakes taste rather floury in a way that I didn't taste much of the tuna and it tasted like cooked flour instead.
I gobbled it down with heavy amount of ketchup to shield the floury taste.
But really, when you use the right amount of ingredients, these little pancakes are wonderful!
I usually made this ahead of time, cool it down and then put it in a sealed container and store it in the fridge for my lunchbox the next day.

For a better instruction on how to make these, check out Maangchi's video !

ps. Maangchi's so adorable! :D