How to Cook Wafu Okara Hamburg Steaks

Saturday, April 29, 2017

How to Cook Wafu Okara Hamburg Steaks

Last weekend, my husband found that ground beef was on sale for $2.99 per pound at our local Sprouts, and he told me that he wanted to cook okara hamburg steaks for dinner because we also had some fresh okara in our refrigerator. :) As I mentioned in my previous entry, My Top 15 Must Eat Foods in Japan, a Japanese hamburg steak (ハンバーグ) is one of my favorite Japanese foods. :) This time, we cooked wafu hamburg steaks which had garlic soy sauce flavor. It was just as delicious as we expected! By the way, wafu (和風) means Japanese style in Japanese. Wa (和) means Japanese or Japan, and fu (風) means style. That's why the sauce of wafu hamburg steaks is made of Japanese ingredients such as soy sauce. :)

Do you know okara? As I mentioned in my previous entry, okara is tofu byproducts. Tofu lees, soy pulp, is called okara in Japanese. Okara is high nutrient food and is high in protein and fiber. Moreover, okara is very inexpensive. It's usually a few dollars for this 2 lb bag. :) However, it's pretty hard to find okara at supermarkets because fresh okara spoils pretty quickly, so it only sells for just a short while (Just several days). If you want to get okara, you can find okara at tofu section in Japanese supermarket. If you cannot use up all your okara in a few days or so, just store them in your freezer. It will last 2 to 3 months. :)

Fresh Okara

Actually, you don't have to use okara to make Japanese hamburg steaks. However, by using okara, it's healthier than ordinarily hamburg steaks. If you use only okara as a substitute for beef, it doesn't taste like meat, so I use okara only one third part of beef. Anyway, I'm going to share how to make wafu okara hamburg steaks with you.

Fresh Okara

◇Ingredients for Okara Hamburg Steaks (8 Servings)◇
1 Cup of Panko
2 Tablespoon of Milk
300g (10 oz) of Ground Beef (or Ground Beef and Pork)
100 g (3 oz) of Okara
2 Onion (Minced)
2 Egg (Beaten)
Nip of Salt and Pepper

■Ingredients for Wafu Sauce■
1/2 lb of Japanese Radish (Grated)
4 Cloves of Garlic (Grated or Minced)
1 Inch of Ginger (Grated)
4 Tablespoons of mirin
4 Tablespoons of sake
5 Tablespoons of soy sauce

1. Mix panko and milk.

2. Put the mixture of panko and milk, ground beef, okara, onion, egg, salt and pepper into a bowl of a stand mixer. Mix them for 5 minutes.

3. Make 8 oval hamburg patties. (By the way, my husband and I used a large amount of the ingredients this time, so we wrapped leftovers with plastic wrap and stored them in a freezer to enjoy them later.)

4. Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Saute them until they're browned on the both sides.

5. Take the hamburg steaks out from a pan (Be sure to leave the meat juice in the pan).

6. For Making Wafu Sauce : Put radish, garlic and ginger into the pan with meat juice. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add mirin, sake and soy sauce and simmer for another 3 minutes.