Veggie and recycling : okara hamburg’

A “burger”, that the Japanese call hamburg’ or hanbaagu to differenciate them from the meat patties from the infamous fast-food chain.
It’s vegan and it’s “recycling” stuff. Yes, okara is a by-product of making tofu and it would only be discarded usually. That’s too bad as it’s full of healthy fibers, and I find it delicious.

The Daring Cooks’ February 2012 challenge was hosted by Audax & Lis and they chose to present Patties for their ease of construction, ingredients and deliciousness! We were given several recipes, and learned the different types of binders and cooking methods to produce our own tasty patties!

Read more.

I used 3 ingredients very common in Japan that may look a bit mysterious for European, American, African and South Pole readers of this blog. So look :

Okara

Soy bean fibers. How I make okara from dry soy beans

Konnyaku

It’s a root veggie that we buy cooked into blocks of different shaped, blocks or noodles. It has a firm jelly texture but it takes mostly the taste of the sauce. The good points : it’s nearly zero calorie per serving and it favors digestion. That’s really interesting here as it gives textures to very soft patties.

Hijiki

It’s a seaweed that you can buy fresh or dried.

I also used one dry shiitake mushroom, carrot, onion, flour (or starch).
Condiments : mirin (a syrup rice vinegar), soy sauce, salt.

Quantities : you will see and as you like.
Well, I mix about the same volume of veggies and okara and I count about 1/10th volume of flour per volume of okara. Then add enough liquid to get a paste you can form as patties.

Recipe :
-in a bowl, put water, the dry mushroom, the seaweeds (if they are dry). Let about 20 minutes. Keep the liquid, it will serve as a broth.
-grate the carrot, the onion. Cut the konnyaku in small cubes. Also cut the rehydrated mushroom.
-in a frying pan with a little oil, stir-fry the onion. Add in the other veggies. After 2 or 3 minutes add the okara and the broth. Add little mirin, soy sauce, salt to season lightly. Stir well. You get something quite dry. Take away from the stove.
-mix 1/4 flour and 3/4 water in a bowl, add to the previous mix.

-form patties in wet hands, sprinkle flour over them as you put them in a frying pan with hot oil. Cook both sides a few minutes.

To serve :
-brush the patties with Ikari Sauce (a cousin of the Worcester sauce), garnish with daikon radish (grated in paste) and sprouts of daikon radish.

And why not, a few leaves of crunchy ice plant ?