Teriyaki Pork Burgers

Exciting news #1: The Zojirushi plays MUSIC whenever I turn it on (Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star) and when it finishes cooking (a good 30 seconds of music that I'm not familiar with) another one. LOVE it. The sheer ridiculousness of it makes me so happy.
Exciting news #2: Teriyaki pork burgers are the awesome sauce. No. Seriously. Super awesome sauce.

This isn't exciting to anyone but me, is it?

Covered with glazed goodness.

Soy-Glazed Pork Burgers

(adapted from Elizabeth Andoh's Washoku)

Ingredients

1 small onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons saké, divided
1 lb lean ground pork (I used heritage pork from HOPE eco-farms)
½ cup panko
1 egg
1 tbsp miso

2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp hot water
3 tbsp soy sauce

Directions

1. Heat a large skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-low heat. Add onions and sauté for about 2 minutes, or until tender, but not browned (but if they do brown, it's not the end of the world). Add 1 tbsp sake to the pan and deglaze the whole thing, scraping up all of those delicious brown bits. Remove onions from pan with any leftover sake bits and let cool in a bowl.

2. In a large bowl, combine pork, panko, egg, miso and cooled onions. I get in there and use my hands to thoroughly mix it all together.

3. Divide the mixture into however many patties you desire (somewhere between 4 and 10 [I made 10 minis].

4. Return the same skillet you used for the onions to the heat, and cover again with cooking spray. Add patties and sear on the first side until browned, about 1 minute. [If you've done several patties, you may need to do the browning and steaming in two batches.]

Flip, and sear the patties on the second side. If the surface cracks a bit, don't freak out. It'll all work out in the long run. Add the remaining sake, 1 tbsp, to the pan, cover quickly with a lid and let cook for 5 or so minutes (for minis - 8-10 minutes for larger ones). If you're doing two batches, use ½ tbsp sake for each batch.

5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine the sugar with the hot water, stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the soy sauce. Return the skillet to med-high heat and pour the soy sauce over the burgers into it. Shake the skillet to coat the beef patties and flip them after a minute to make sure they're evenly glazed.

If you're like me, you'll probably spend 4-5 minutes with the flippy and glazing. I love me a thick sauce.

See? That's some mighty fine thick sauce. I had a hard time not licking the plate!

Serve over rice, with a side of sugar-free carrot kinpira.

Tasting Japan

I'm sitting at the computer eating breakfast right now. Fluffy white bread, peanut butter and grapes. And as all these flavours came together, I got an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. See, that was my first breakfast in my house in Japan (about this time of year, 6 years ago). The grapes were red and huge with tough skins and inedible seeds... but the most incredibly jammy flavour. The bread was inoffensive and thick (think Texas style), I could peel it apart to make weird looking layers. I have no memory of the peanut butter save that it melted into the toast.

My apartment was so hot, even in the early mornings of that summer, and I ate the exact same breakfast for weeks.

One of my real regrets about my time in Japan (other than leaving behind a very nice fruit bowl and a kiwi knife-spoon) is not learning how to cook Japanese food while I was there. Nope, I spent a bloody fortune on food from home instead of appreciating what I had in front of me. I used my nabe pot to make chili, I baked cookies in my microwave/convection oven, I held Christmas dinner for my students.

Of course, now I crave Japanese food all the time, and really, it's hard to find the random stuff I loved so much: the egg fried rice onigiri (Toki station's conbini), okonomiyaki (from the really dodgy place in Ena), kara age (from Senri in my town), oden (from my School Lunch Program [believe it or not]), zaru soba, ham and cucumber sandwiches laced with more mayo than you know what to do with (I didn't even love those, and yet, I still miss them), miso ramen.

The grass is always greener, isn't it?

Anyway, in my efforts to combat my missing Japanese food, I picked up a new cookbook: Washoku.

I want to make everything on this cover. I'd forgotten about the salmon I'd purchase from the grocery store. I used to buy the hijiki & carrot salad coming home from Ochiaigawa once a week (from this farmer's co-op). Man, I wish I'd bought more pottery as well!

I made umboshi (pickled plum) onigiri yesterday for lunch, using Andoh's rice cooking guide. I will never go back to just throwing things in the pot. The rinsing is such an important step! I cannot wait to tackle her ramen recipe this fall. And the tempura pancakes look awesome too.

Expect recipes from her!