June 6, 2014

Cabbage Hamburgers/キャベツハンバーグ

We got three heads of cabbage from my father, among others. Since then, I've been thinking of good ways to use them up. One of them is to use some to make hamburgers instead of onions.
父からキャベツを3つもらいました。それから、キャベツを使い切るいい方法を考え続けています。その一つが、ハンバーグを作るのに玉ねぎの代わりにキャベツを使うということです。

I finely chopped 1/4 cabbage, put in a mixing bowl, added 1 tsp salt, and let sit for 5 min. or so. Then, I squeezed, and added it to about 350 g ground pork. I added one egg, some panko (Japanese bread crumbs), and pepper (but no salt). The texture was just right, much firmer than the ground pork + fried onion version.
キャベツ1/4をみじん切りして、ボールに入れ、塩を小さじ1足し、5分程度おいてから、絞り、豚のひき肉約350 gに入れました。卵1個、パン粉、胡椒を入れました(塩は入れてません)。固さはちょうど良く、ひき肉+炒めた玉ねぎよりもずっと固かったです。 

Just as I had imagined, the hamburgers were very delicious with their unique texture.
想像通り、このハンバーグは独特な食感で、とても美味しかったです。

3 comments:

Sissi said...

It's the most unusual cabbage use idea I have ever seen (it beats even the Sichuan stir-fried hot cabbage that has surprised me a lot!). I must really try it one day (it's funny because my mum always used to make meat patties the way you do in Japan, i.e. with stir-fried softened onion... but as much as the cabbage is the staple cheap vegetable in many European countries, together with potatoes, I have never heard anyone using it instead of the onions in patties (which are also quite popular, though the recipes differ). Very creative idea!

Hiroyuki said...

Sissi: I first thought I would make a kind of soup with lots of cabbage and balls of ground pork, but I was afraid my children wouldn't eat it, so I had to think of another idea. I thought, "Gyoza (Chinese dumplings) have ground pork and cabbage, and the "Kyabetsu Tappuri Menchi Katsu" (Menchi Katsu Full of Cabbage) (product name) contains lots of cabbage. Hamburgers with lots of cabbage in them can't be bad!"

Sissi said...

You were so right! It's like gyoza without skins! Excellent.