Some actual gastronomy for this thread for once!
So few weeks I found an instant hamburg steak package at a supermarket. it became new family favorite. I complaint about its overfirmness though. Hamburg is supposed to be soft! After several times buying though, my older brother stopped wanting it, claiming bad MSG aftertaste.
So, in the spirit of wannabe chef, and since it been a while since I last cooking, I decided to make some hamburg steak myself.
Improvising a bit from three recipes found in the net, this is what I ended up using
hamburg ingredients:
370 g ground beef
1 onion, chopped finely
1 egg
1/2 cup panko
A pinch of nutmeg, grounded (whatever amount a pinch lol, I literary just pinched some nutmeg)
A pinch of blackpepper, grounded.
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of salty soy sauce (not shoyu, Indonesian soy sauce come in sweet and salty type)
A bit of ketchup (not part of my initial recipe but I figure a dash couldn't hurt)
Sauce ingredients:
Some leftover pieces of the hamburg
1 bay leaf
some raisins
Water as necessary
3-4 tablespoon of Ketchup
2-3 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
a drip of salty soy sauce
two pinches of blackpepper
(There supposed to be some vinegar too but I forgot)
As the normal recipe goes, I sauteed the onion, mix it with the beef and and other ingredients, and knead into ...err, slabs of beef mix?
Fried both sides of each piece a bit in the pan. The usual business.
Now from here is the most improvisation goes. All two of the recipes (the third one just told to use straight tonkatsu sauce) call for using red wine reduction as sauce base. I'm Muslim tho, so red wine is no no. Grape juice is also out, purely because I'm not feeling like buying grapes on top of buying beef and panko. Even if I buy grapes, I rather just eat them fresh
. Hence why I whimsically add raisins in attempt to add at least some grapeness.
Also adding that bayleaf even though no recipes call for it whackjob attempt to add flavour to compensate the lack of grape juice/red wine.
Anyway, so I added water to some pieces of the fried beef, added bay leaf, and raisins, and boil them for a while. After which I add the remaining ingredients, and return the hamburg into the pan for them to finish cooking in the sauce.
End results, hmm. I think I messed up a bit. I got too much meat. Should have increase the amount of seasonings first, not only because there's more beef but also because considering my family's tongue, we are too used and in favor of lots of seasoning that a westerner or Japanese measure won't up to task. Also made them too thick. Fumbled a bit when flipping causing some cracks. My mother also said I used wrong type of panko and add too little. I dunno about that but ah well.
As far taste goes, well, the sauce is done pretty well I think. It taste different from the laste time I made but of course it is since I use different mix (previously I improvised sometihng out of oyster sauce, salty soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, ketchup, and I forgot what else if any). The hamburg themselves taste like it could some improvement however.
Ah well. At least my brother got his free-msg and less fatty hamburg while I got my soft hamburg plus for once cooking for someone else. (My mother praise my cooking sometimes, but both because of health and taste don't into most things I eat beyond taste testing, so I really just cook for myself when I do).
Forgot too cook some side dish too....