Japanese Steak Haché
Cook Time: ~20 Minutes
Steak haché is originally a French dish, roughly translating to “chopped steak”, and is thought to be somewhat of an elevated hamburger, traditionally not served with cheese. Most butchers in France will freshly prepare a steak haché, so that it can be cooked, like a steak, and served in a similar manner. As you can see, you might imagine that my version of steak haché translates to “cheeseburger without a bun”.
While this dish is no longer as fashionable in the United States or Europe, it remains an everpresent in the casual dining establishments of Japan; where there are entire chains dedicated to the dish, such as Bikkuri Donkey. This is something I came to learn from Tim Anderson’s Japaneasy: Classic and Modern Japanese Recipes. This book is the inspiration for this dish, and whilst I mostly stuck to the core recipe, I made a few of my own tweaks.
Serves: 2
Time: ~20 Minutes
Information - What you require
Ingredients
• Beef Mince (~600g)
• Gruyère cheese (~150g)
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Small white onions
• 3 Garlic cloves
• Bunch of flatleaf parsley
• Breadcrumbs (~85g)
• Dashi (~100ml)
• Tomato ketchup (~3 tbsp)
• Soy Sauce (~85ml)
• Worchester Sauce (1 tbsp)
• Smoked paprika (1 tsp)
• Cayenne pepper (1 tsp)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Ground black pepper & salt
Optional Ingredients & Notes
• Bread Crumbs: Totally optional. For the gluten-free, or carb-conscious, amongst us, you can easily remove this ingredient without losing much from the dish.
• Fried Onions: You can prepare fried onions yourself, but this can take upwards of 25 minutes. It’s certainly worth it to create a batch of this delish garnish for general use around the kitchen, but shop-bought onions will suffice in a pinch.
• Dashi: You will find dashi, a Japanese stock, in powder or liquid form in most supermarkets. I opted for powder in this recipe because I had some in the cupboard.
• Serving Size: My recommended ingredients will create ~four patties, which is enough for two people, but can be stretched to four as a lighter dish.
Equipment
• Two medium-sized pans
• One small pan
• Food processor
Mise En Place - Food preparation
Roughly chop your two onions and garlic. Finely chop your parsley. Measure out 85g of breadcrumbs. Slice, or grate, your gruyère cheese. For the sauce, mix together your soy sauce, Worchester sauce, tomato ketchup, smoked paprika, cayenne, and dashi in a bowl.
Cooking Process
First, grab your food processor and blend together the breadcrumbs, chopped onions, parsley (keeping some aside for garnish), salt and ground black pepper into a paste.
Fold this paste into your beef mince and form as many patties as you see fit, lightly seasoning them once again.
The next phase requires some multitasking. Start by pouring the sauce you prepared into a medium-sized pan on moderate heat and when it starts to simmer, turn down the heat to low. Take a small amount of that sauce and transfer it to another pan, crank it up to a reasonably high heat, and use it to fry your patties for ~3-4 minutes on each side. Following this, layer on the gruyère cheese and stick the pan under a hot grill until the cheese has melted. This should take about a minute or so. Just before your patties are finished, use a third, small, pan to fry up a couple of eggs.
When the cheese on your patties is melted, removed the pan from the grill, apply a generous drizzle of your sauce over your pattie, and top with a freshly fried (and seasoned) egg. To serve, place the steak haché in the centre of the plate and sprinkle over fried onions, parsley and one last drizzle of your sauce.
If you do attempt this dish, please let me know how it goes, and if you variate the recipe in any way. Also, this newsletter relies upon word of mouth, so if you feel you know someone who would enjoy this publication please share it.
Thanks for reading,
Conor