Here is an idea for minced meat! Not another spagbol night tyvm! Not another minced meat stir fry tonight ladies and gentlemen. Why not a hybrid hamburger/steak but make it Japanese 🇯🇵 Complete with fluffy rice and oozing egg, Japanese Hamburger Steak! This will be a hit for both kids and adults! For those nights when you feel particularly carnivorous, this Japanese hamburger steak also checks all the boxes!
✅ meaty, juicy, easy to make, for children & adults, Asian cuisine, Western cuisine and oishiiiiii a.k.a delicioussssss
If you don’t really cook much Japanese food at home, the special ingredient that I would highly recommend that you shop for is kelp aka kombu, known as the King of Seaweeds. Kelp is easily available in small packets in Japanese and Korean grocery stores. Making your own kelp stock or kombu dashi, besides being super easy to do, is great for enhancing the flavours for your soups, steamboats, sauces and stews. In this recipe, I will be using the dashi to poach the burger steak as well as to make the sauce for the steak – it’s going to taste incredible! But if you do not have kelp, substituting with vegetable stock or water is perfectly acceptable.
Start by making a cold brew of kombu dashi. Simply place a piece of kelp approximately 2” in two cups of water and leave it for a few hours! That’s all there is to it!
Prepare your onion. Pan fry ⅔ of the chopped onions with some olive oil and caramelise them until golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool completely.
To add a bit of body to the patties, there is the breadcrumb and milk mixture. I’ve used fine breadcrumbs here, but if you have panko or any coarser breadcrumbs, please feel free to substitute but the reduce the amount slightly.
Next up are the patties. I like to get mince beef that has some fat in it and not the lean, weight watchers type. The hamburg steak, unlike a regular steak or a burger patty is to be cooked until well-done. So some fat in the meat will help keep it nice and juicy. There are also other tricks to keep the moisture in. Read on!
In a medium bowl, add all the patty ingredients and mix it all up. For this amount of beef, you can choose to divide into three large patties or into four medium patties – I’ve done the latter here. Now the next step is IMPORTANT: pat the meat patties back and forth between your hands so that you get rid of all air bubbles in the patty and end up with a nice, tight patty. Cling wrap and refrigerate the patties until ready to cook.
Take out the patties at least half an hour before you start frying. In a medium frying pan, heat some olive oil in medium heat and add the patties. I fry them two at a time.
Cover the pan with a lid and let the cook for about 5 minutes. When you see that the bottom has turned golden brown, turn the patties and add half of the trimmed shimeiji mushrooms into the same pan. Season with salt. Add half of your dashi stock and cover the lid again. Cook for another 5 minutes. Poaching the patties will give an amazing juiciness to the hamburg steak!
You can check for doneness by poking one patty and ensuring the juices run clear, meaning it’s well cooked! See how juicy it is in the video! Once it’s all cooked, transfer patties to a tray and keep warm by covering with aluminum foil.
In the same pan, let’s make the sauce! Deglaze the pan, on medium heat with the balance kombu dashi and add mustard, ketchup, sugar and worcestershire sauce. Keep stirring until smooth and then finally add the soya sauce last. Do a taste check and you may find that you may need to add more sugar to balance out the flavours.
Start preparing your accompaniments. I’ve a salad, I’ve some avocadoes and I’ve also got some hot, fluffy rice in the rice cooker. If you have some toasted sesame seeds, furikake or toasted nori strips, they would work great here as well
Serve with oozing, pan fried egg and dinner is served!
Japanese Hamburg Steak
Ingredients
Kombu Dashi: 1 pc kelp in 2 cups of water, leave for 2-3 hours
45g fine breadcrumbs
70g milk
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
1 egg
460g minced beef
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
- Sauce
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp Dijon mustard or yellow mustard
3 tbsp Ketchup
2 tbsp soya sauce
1-2 tbsp sugar
- Accompaniment
2x 150g packets brown shimeiji mushrooms
4 eggs
furikake
2 avocados
Cooked rice
Salad of choice
Directions
- In a small jug or bowl, make your kombu dashi by soaking 1 piece of kombu in two cups of water. After 2-3 hours, remove the kombu which you can freeze and save for future use or discard.
- In a medium frying pan, saute ⅔ of the chopped onions in some olive oil until caramelised and golden brown. Remove from heat and let cool completely. Put aside the frying pan for use later.
- Trim the shimeji mushrooms and separate into little bunches.
In a small bowl, combine the breadcrumbs and milk.
In a medium bowl, combine the beef, raw onions, cooled caramelised onions, breadcrumbs mixture, egg, salt and pepper. Give it a good mix and divide into four portions. Using oiled hands, quickly shape each portion into approximately an inch thick and give it a good patting back and forth between your hands to get rid of any air pockets. At this point you may chill the patties for frying later or fry immediately. If you are chilling them, remove from the fridge half an hour before frying. - When you are ready to cook, heat up the frying pan on medium heat with olive oil and add the patties. I am frying 2 patties at a time. Cover the pan and fry for about 5 minutes until the bottom is golden brown before flipping them. Add half the shimeji mushrooms into the same pan and season them with salt. Continue sauteing for about a minute or two before reducing the heat to medium low and adding 1⁄2 cup of the konbu dashi. Close the lid and let the mushrooms and patties poach for about 6-7 minutes. You can check for doneness by poking one patty with a toothpick – juices should run clear and not bloody. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining two patties and mushrooms.
- Keep the patties and mushrooms warm by covering with aluminium foil as you make the sauce. In the same pan on medium heat, deglaze with the balance 1 cup of kombu dashi, mustard, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, soya sauce and sugar. Reduce until thick. Adjust sweetness to your liking.
- Time to plate! Serve with hot rice, shimeji mushrooms, avocado, salad and an oozing fried egg. I also like to sprinkle some furikake all around! Enjoy!
Check the full video on my YouTube, here! Till my next recipe!
