March 16, 2014

Wafu (Japanese Style) Hamburgers/和風ハンバーグ

As part of supper tonight, I made wafu hamburgers, using 1 kg minced chicken, naga negi (only one of which was used), 2 eggs, grated ginger, salt, and katakuriko (potato starch).
今日の夕飯には、鶏のひき肉1 kg、長ネギ(一本だけ使用)、卵2個、おろしショウガ、塩、片栗粉で和風ハンバーグを作りました。
Note that the 1 kg bag of minced chicken is for commercial use. In Japan, we usually think of meat in terms of grams when buying it. I mean we usually buy meat in small quantities like 300 and 500 g, except for large families. In the case of rice, which is the staple of the Japanese, we used to buy a 30 kg bag at a time, but now, 10, 5, or even 2 kg bags are popular.
鶏のひき肉1 kg入りの袋は業務用です。日本では、肉を買う時はグラム単位で考えます。つまり、大家族を除き、普通は300 gや500 gなど少量づつ買います。日本人の主食、お米の場合は、昔は一度に30 kgの袋で買っていましたが、今では、10、5、さらに2 kgの袋が一般的です。
The resultant mixture had rather a soft consistency, so it was hard for me to make it into proper shapes.
柔らかくなってしまったので、形を整えるのが大変でした。
A single pan was not enough.
フライパン一つでは足りませんでした。

Two pans were not enough, and I cooked the rest of the mixture in the toaster oven.
フライパン二つでも足りず、残りはオーブントースターで火を通しました。


I also made potato salad. I used some cabbage instead of cucumbers.
ポテトサラダも作りました。キュウリの代わりにキャベツを使いました。
Cucumbers can be very expensive (50-60 yen each) here in the snowy region in the winter time, and I simply can't afford them. I rubbed the cabbage with salt before mixing.
ここ雪国では、冬はキュウリはすごく高く(一本50~60円)なります。とても買えません。キャベツは混ぜる前に塩でもみました。



I also added some canned corn, fake crabmeat (called "surimi" in France and elsewhere), and Kewpie mayo.
缶詰のコーン、かにかま(フランスなどでは「すり身」と呼ばれる)、キューピーマヨネーズも入れました。
(I had bought two tubes of Kewpie Half by mistake, which I hate...)
(間違って、嫌いなキューピーハーフを2本買ってしまいました...。)

After mixing, I put more mayo.
混ぜた後、マヨネーズをもっと入れました。
I have kept making this type of very, very substantial soup these days, as requested by my wife.
この頃、妻のリクエストで、この様なとても具沢山(ぐだくさん)の汁を作り続けています。
This particular soup contains buna shimeji, enoki, daikon, daikon stems, carrot, Chinese cabbage, and naga negi.
この汁には、ブナシメジ、エノキ、大根、大根の茎、人参、白菜、長ネギが入っています。

I almost forgot to mention: The hamburger sauce was a 1:1 mixture of soy sauce and mirin, with some sake, as usual.
言い忘れましたが、ハンバーグソースはいつも通り、醤油とみりんを1:1で混ぜ、お酒を少し足したものです。

These particular hamburgers are a lot like chicken tsukune.
Images of chicken tsukune/鶏のつくねの画像


7 comments:

Katrin said...

Awww. For how long will you be eating hamburgers now?

Hiroyuki said...

Katrin: Don't worry. We (a family of four) will finish them off in a day or two. The small ones cooked in the the toaster oven are now frozen for use in my son's bento.

Katrin said...

Glad to hear that :)

Say, have you ever tried to put panko into the minced meat for hamburgers? I'm asking because in Germany, it is a common method to put breadcrumbs into the meat (in addition to eggs, onions, spices...) to adjust the softness of the mass.

(I have never used panko for anything, so I don't really have an idea if it will work.)

Hiroyuki said...

Katrin: Yes, I have. That's common practice in Japan, too. Common ingredients are the same, eggs, onions, etc. Like I said in the post, these particular Janapese-style hamburgers are more like tsukune つくね. That's why I added naga negi instead of onions, potato starch instead of panko, grated ginger instead of spices.

Unknown said...

Hiroyuki-san I tried these hamburgers last night and thought them delicious. I decided to experiment a little and added some finely chopped enoki mushrooms to a few (here in Australia enoki are about as thick as a piece of spaghetti) and garlic chives and enjoyed those too. Thanks for the continuing inspiration. Phil

Hiroyuki said...

Phil H: Thank *you* for trying my recipe!

Well, I suppose that cultured enoki is about that thick anywhere in the world. One of my son's dream is to find wild enoki, which is completely different from the cultured.

Unknown said...

Hiroyuki-san: I'd love to have access to wild mushrooms. Sadly the climate over here is not suitable (Oh so very hot) so I have to be happy with the dried varieties I can get but they're just not the same.
Katrin: if you have not yet tried panko they are (in my opinion) the world's BEST breadcrumbs.