Friday, June 11, 2010

Mahi Mahi Burgers

It's Game 4 of the NBA Finals and not a particularly nice day. The June Gloom that has been burning off most mornings has been around all day. The idea of watching the game at a bar or friend's house is not exciting. Nothing sounds better than making a simple dinner and sitting in front of the TV.

These were the thoughts that were rambling around in my head yesterday afternoon. Once again Trader Joe's came through with a new product - Mahi Mahi Burgers. Mahi mahi is one of my favorite kinds of fish, and the idea of eating it as a sandwich sounded good. Normally I do not like fish on a bun, even if it's been fried. But mahi mahi is sweet and mild and can hold up to some big flavors.

To start with, I mixed some of my Persian lime oil (from Beyond the Olive) with mayonnaise to give it a bit of zing. I also pickled some red onions. I realized as I was doing this that my burger was going to look a lot like the one on the box. I grilled the burgers for about five minutes on each side and laid them on the bun with some butter lettuce and the homemade condiments.

They were outstanding. I could have eaten two or three of these. The fish was surprisingly moist (shockingly, actually, considering it was frozen) and the flavors of the red onion and lime mayo were a beautiful complement. I have a couple burgers left in the freezer; I will probably make more this weekend. Maybe I can come up with some more ideas for condiments to top them.

10 comments:

JulieBean said...

Can you share how to pickle the onions? Is it a long process?

Thanks,
Julie

JustinM said...

Sure. It's is very simple and short. I cut up half a large red onion then blanched it in a wok of boiling water for about a minute. I drained the water then put roughly half a cup of vinegar (I used rice) into the wok with some salt and pepper. I turned up the heat until it boiled, then reduced it and let the onions simmer for five minutes.

Then I drained them, put them in a bowl and let them cool in the fridge.

JulieBean said...

Thank you! I made these last night, complete with pickled onions. I really like the mahi mahi patties - not fishy and good consistency.

JustinM said...

No prob. I too was very impressed with the quality of the fish patties.

o0angie0o said...

I am going to have to pick these up sometime over the weekend and give them a try, maybe next time you make them you can give a little hint of sweet in there with some mango salsa? I like using that sometimes on my fish dishes for something light and refreshing.

Anonymous said...

I tried the Trader Joe's mahi mahi burger recently. I thought they tasted very good, though a little bitt on the salty side. Unfortunately, I threw up after eating the mahi mahi burger the first time I tried it.

JustinM said...

I could see that. I didn't notice, but I used mayo and onions that would have cut the saltiness, plus I'm not that observant anyways. Sorry about getting sick; that's never fun.

Jim Claussen said...

I went to TJ the other day looking for these and they didn't have them. I hope they didn't discontinue them because they are wonderful and work very well with my diet.

JustinM said...

Interesting. I don't think I've seen them in a while, but then again I have not really looked. I guess that's TJ's for you. I hope you find them, though, sorry if they're gone and you really liked them.

Jim Claussen said...

I contacted TJ and they said there is a shortage of Mahi Mahi right now and they are working with their suppliers to rectify it. They do plant to continue selling them.