Seafood Made Simple: This spicy tuna melt sandwich is inspired by Cork's street food scene

Aishling Moore's spicy tuna melt with pickled chillies. Picture Chani Anderson

Us chefs can be the most particular of customers, especially where sandwiches are concerned, being a very regular post-service meal for us.

Making sandwiches is serious business and my go-to spot for a hand held meal is Tongue Tied Deli at the Black Market, Centre Park Road, Cork.

There, brothers Alex and Felix Castaldo are making some very lovely sambos. I had the pleasure of calling Alex a colleague for a year when he worked as a chef with us at Goldie.

The lads started out Tongue Tied as a hot sauce company in 2023, now they’ve added a hot honey, chilli oil and a small but mighty deli.

Cracking the code to making perfect sandwiches is no small feat. 

The architecture is imperative, building the correct ratio of filling to bread. 

There must be different textures at play, excellent-quality ingredients used, don’t forget to season and the most important factor in my book — one must not require a knife and fork to eat it!

Tongue Tied are doing the texture side of things very well indeed, with their crowd favourite, the Dirty Caesar sando, serving the crisps inside the sandwich for that extra crunch among all the other usual suspects you’d expect in a Caesar sub.

Inspired by the Tongue Tied brothers’ love for a bit of spice and a sandwich, this weekend’s recipe is my take on a classic fish sambo: the tuna melt. 

I’ve spiced up this version with a little chilli oil and shared my recipe for a very handy condiment of pickled chillies to give an extra hit of heat.

For the cheese component I have chosen a gouda – from Mossfield Organic Farm in County Offaly – a lovely nutty flavoured easy-melting cheese which is marvellous for this.

Spicy Tuna Melt with Pickled Chillies

recipe by:Aishling Moore

I’ve spiced up this version with a little chilli oil and shared my recipe for a very handy condiment of pickled chillies to give an extra hit of heat.

Servings

2

Preparation Time

 40 mins

Cooking Time

 14 mins

Total Time

 54 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the pickled chillies

• 100g chillies

• 200g caster sugar

• 200ml apple cider vinegar

• 200ml water

• For the tuna melt

• 4 slices thick-cut sourdough bread

• 120g Tuna drained

• 1 tbsp chilli oil

• 1 tbsp crème fraîche

• 2 tbsp mayonnaise

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard

• 1 small red onion, finely diced

• 1 lemon, zested

• 3 tbsp unsalted butter (at room temperature)

• 1/2 tbsp golden rapeseed oil

• 100g cheese

Method

1. Using a very sharp knife finely slice the chillies. I like to keep mine whole with seeds intact but remove if you’d rather less heat, by slicing the chilli in half and using a teaspoon to scrape out the seeds before slicing the chilli into thin slivers. Place in a sterile jar.

2. In a small saucepan on medium-high heat place the caster sugar, water and apple cider vinegar and bring to the boil to dissolve the sugar.

3. Remove from the heat and allow to cook completely before pouring over the chillies in a sterile jar.

4. To make the tuna melt, flake the tuna in a small bowl using a fork before adding the diced red onion, chilli oil, crème fraîche, mayonnaise, mustard and lemon zest and mix well to combine.

5. Season with freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt.

6. Divide the tuna mixture in half and spread across two slices of the bread.

7. Sprinkle over a teaspoon of pickled chillies on each sandwich before topping each slice with cheese. Place the remaining slices of bread on top of each sandwich.

8. Using 2 tbsp of the unsalted butter at room temperature, butter the outer side of each sandwich.

9. Heat a heavy-based frying pan on medium-low heat. Add the remaining tablespoon of butter and rapeseed oil and warm before placing the sandwiches in the pan.

10. Using a spatula, press down on the sandwich; this will ensure even caramelisation.

11. Cook on one side for 5-7 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Carefully turn the sandwich over on to its other side, pressing down once more to colour the other side of the sandwich.

12. Slice in half and serve.

Fish tales

• Choose your favourite variety of chilli for these pickled chillies. Once cooled store in the refrigerator.
• Use some shop-bought pickled chillies such as jalapeno or guindilla if you’d like to save time on pickling.
• Instead of chilli oil, you could use your favourite hot sauce for the tuna mixture.
• Reserve the leftover oil from the tuna for the base of pasta sauces or salad dressings.
• Swap the diced red onion for some finely sliced scallion if you’d prefer.
• Use a sandwich press or a toasted sandwich maker if you’d rather. but I always find cooking in a large heavy based frying pan produces best results.
• I use a fish weight that I picked up on my travels in Canada for pressing down the sandwich in the pan which produces marvellous toasties.
• Keep an eye on the temperature of the heat when toasting the sandwich in the pan - you want the cheese to melt and the tuna mixture to warm as the bread caramelises.