Japaneasy: Hamburg with Red Wine Sauce

I hate to admit this but I love watching anime. I'm pretty sure it's not some kind of addiction - yet. But I do have a long list of shows I want to watch. And I'll get to do that over the break! In the meantime, A and I are a bit crazy over all things Japanese - from the culture to the language to the food. I already have a small menu of Japanese recipes that I've started perfecting but I still have a long way to go.

Today though, I'm focusing on the Japanese style hamburger steak. I haven't made it this way before as I always follow my own style of making meatballs. My favorite will have to be the baked meatballs with parmesan cheese and marinara sauce. This recipe is kind of like a combination of ingredients from several websites I've visited while researching how to make it. In the end, unfortunately, I can't give you the exact quantities but here's what I used : mixture of ground beef and pork abour 750 grams, an egg, panko crumbs (about 3/4 cup), 1 small onion that's been diced, caramelized and cooled, some cooking sake and some tamari.

I divided the mix into 4 patties then shaped them into an oblong, tossed them from one hand to the other then placed them in the fridge for 30 minutes before cooking.

After 30 mins, I took them out for 10 minutes before I started cooking. I browned them on one side, then flipped them on the other to cook further. I added around 2 cups of red wine and let that simmer away until the internal temperature registers 75C - it took me about 15 mins over medium low heat.

So the secret to this sauce is the concentrated vegetable stock that I bought from Williams Sonoma. It really makes all the difference. If you don't have this, just simply reduce the red wine sauce and thicken it up with cold butter. I know the steps sound a lot but all in all, it was pretty straightforward. There are a few minor steps that I typically won't do for a steak but I think stewing the beef in shallow liquid helps shorten the cooking time.

The result was a very intense sauce but not too salty at all. The steak itself was very tender and fluffy on the inside. I also added a fried egg on top just because. It's worth making so give it a try!