Japanese Hamburger

There was another food festival this past weekend; Ballard Seafood Fest. It was similar to Bite of Seattle with similar food stands, but at a much smaller scale. I enjoyed BBQ shrimp, crab clam chowder, and grilled salmon. I didn't see any raw oyster though. My wife told me that people have been getting sick from oysters from Puget Sound this season. The warmer weather is causing virus to grow inside oysters, apparently. That's too bad.

Last week, I introduced Italian fried rice, so this weekend I thought I would make Japanese hamburger. The photo didn't turn out that appetizing, but this is probably my wife's favorite dish.

IN JAPANESE: Hamburg
CATEGORY: Meat
COOKING METHOD: Grilled
DIFFICULTY: Difficult
SERVES: 4 people
LENGTH OF TIME: 45 min

INGREDIENTS:
[burgers]
3/4 lb beef
1/4 lb pork
1/2 onion chopped
1 egg (mixed with a pinch of salt)
1 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp pepper
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 half inch piece of ginger (see TIP: Ginger)

[sauce]
1/2 cup of ketchup
2 TBsp Bulldog Sauce
2 TBsp sake or white wine
1 TBsp butter
3 mushrooms sliced
1 clove of garlic chopped

HOW TO:
Chop half an onion and a clove of garlic into tiny pieces and add that into a bowl along with all the ingredients listed on the [hamburger] list, EXCEPT for the breadcrumbs. Mix well with your hands (be sure they are clean!) I use the mixture of beef and pork since that creates more fluffy juicy burger. But if you don't eat pork, then you can omit using it.

After everything is mixed well together, add a cup of breadcrumbs. This time, mix gently so the breadcrumbs will stay as fluffy as they can without mashing everything up.

Grab about half of tennis ball in your hand, and toss it back and forth from one hand to the other to make sure the air escapes from the mixture. After a few tosses, make it flat into burger shapes. Depending on your preference, you could make four fairly big patties or six tiny pieces (my wife prefers small ones, so she can eat two instead of one big one).

Set the pan on medium high with a table spoon of vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, place the burgers on the pan, let them cook for a few minutes until one side turns brown. Lower the temperature to low, flip your burgers, and place the lid, and let them cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the burgers are fully cooked.

If you are in a hurry, after flipping the burgers, you can pour hot boiling water about half way full on the pan, and place a lid. That would steam the burgers and cook them faster. When most of the water has evaporated, your burgers should be done.

SAUCE:
Set your burgers aside, and on the same pan (if there are leftover grease and meat pieces, even better), add butter and diced up garlic on medium heat. After the garlic pieces tunr slightly brown, add sliced mushroom, and let it cook for a few minutes until they look cooked.

Lower the heat to low, and add the rest of the ingredients (ketchup, Bulldog sauce and sake) and stir until everything is well mixed.

Place the bugers back in the pan. If you want cheese over them (I recommend chedder), put a slice on top of burgers, and cook with the sauce on low heat until the cheese melt.