About the Recipe
Answer: When it's a Hamburg steak. The hamburger is so all powerful these days that most people aren't that the hamburger was originally the Hamburg steak. It was only when the Hamburg steak patty was flattened out and placed between tow pieces of bread that the hamburger was born. The original Hamburg steak is still alive and well in Japan although, like everywhere else, it is very much in the shadow of its younger brother. So this recipe is for all of you out there who prefer their Hamburg patty without the bread. Paired with my Japanese daikon sauce, I hope you'll agree that it makes a refreshing and delicious change to a Big Mac!
Ingredients
1/2 onion
250g minced beef
2 tbsp panko/breadcrumbs
2 tbsp milk
1/2 egg, beaten
a little salt & pepper
1/2 tbsp veg oil
2 tbsp mirin
3 tbsp japanese cooking sake
3 tbsp soy sauce
200g daikon/white radish
Preparation
finely slice & chop the onion
add the milk to the panko, mix and set aside for 5 mins
put the minced beef in a bowl, add the onion, beaten egg, salt & pepper and the panko mixture and mix everything together well
take 1/2 the minced beef mixture & shape into a burger
repeat with the other 1/2
to make the Japanese onion sauce:
peel & halve the daikon lengthways, then slice. place the slices in a blender and blend to a pulp
add the mirin & blend again into a puree
heat 1/2 tbsp of veg oil in a frying pan. fry the burgers for 3 minues with a lid on, then turn over and cook for another 2 minutes
add the cooking sake, soy sauce & daikon puree to the pan, stir the daikon puree around the burgers and cook for 5 - 6 minutes with the lid off, so that the alcohol evaporates
serve with some salad or vegetables. put your hamburg steaks on serving plates and pour over the daikon sauce