The Japanese "Hamburg"

My boyfriend bought me a Japanese cookbook for Valentine's Day.  It was a beautiful book with great pictures, explanation on how the cuisine developed, and great recipes to try out.  The first one that I tackled was the Hambagu (ハンバーグ) , or hamburger steak.

The Japanese have a way with developing their recipes.  They take the foreign and make it comfortably Japanese.  The Hamburg is a great comfort food.  It is a hamburger patty drenched with a savory sauce often served with white rice and veggies on the side.  Now, shame on me for forgetting to take pictures of it when I made it--I've just been so keen on just eating it first!

Hamburg as pictured in an anime

The steps to make it are very simple.  You assemble the burger patty, cook it, and then create the sauce from the pan drippings.  The recipe I was following was straightforward and came out great.  I'm doing this from memory, so I hope the listed amounts are correct.

Burger Ingredients (4 large patties)

• 6 oz minced onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 8 oz ground pork
• 8 oz ground beef
• 1/2 cup of panko crumbs
• 1/4 cup of milk
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 egg

Sauce Ingredients

• 1/4 cup sake
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup Worchestershire Sauce

Cooking Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil

The first step is to mince your onion and garlic.  You then melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan over medium heat and cook the onions and garlic until it is translucent.  Set this aside to cool as you assemble the meat mix.

Use a small bowl to hold the panko crumbs and pour the milk in.  Let the panko soak up the milk for at least 5 minutes.  My suggestion is to mix it up well before you let it sit on the counter.  Just make sure that most of the crumbs get soaked into the milk.

Now, get your other ingredients together into a mixing bowl.  Measure out your meat.  I have a handy food scale so I can easily set it to g/kg/oz/lbs without having to convert. :)  I like to put the meat in first, then the salt and soy sauce, then the panko crumbs, cooked onion and garlic, and lastly, the egg!  You then squish this mixture with your hands until the ingredients are evenly distributed.  Also, I should say that you can substitute your meats for other ground meats and the texture will still come out pretty good.  It's really the panko crumbs that makes it so tender, so you can substitute for less fatty ground meat if you wish.

The traditional Hamburg is a big burger patty.  If you want to do it this way, you divide up the meat mixture into 4 portions and then shape the patties about 1 inch thick.  I did it this way the first time I made it, but the second time, I made little meatballs instead!  I made meatballs about 3/4 inch thick, squish a little bit flat so that it's like a little slider patty rather than a rolly poly meatball.  This works just as well as a big hamburger patty--just watch your cooking time.

Heat 1 tbsp butter and 1 tbsp vegetable oil over medium heat in your pan.  Wait for the oil to get hot before putting in your patties.  In my normal skillet, I fit about 2 large patties in it at a time.  With little meatballs, you can put more in at once.  The average time for a large patty is about 12 minutes total cooking time.  Make sure that you flip your patty or meatballs halfway through.  To see if your meat is cooked through, stick a toothpick in and see if the juices run clear.  Then you're good to go!  Plate the patties while you make the sauce.

Keep the pan at medium to medium-low heat.  Pour the sake into the pan (I substituted with Chinese rice wine that I had) and swirl it around for 20 seconds.  Use your spatula to scrape the pan so that everything comes off the bottom.  Then add in the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and cook for a minute or two, mixing until everything is well blended.  Then pour the sauce over your burgers and serve!

Since the sauce is very salty and savory, it's a great match with plain white rice and some steamed veggies.  Enjoy!