Featured Anime: Rozen Maiden, Episode 8

In Rozen Maiden, Sakurada Jun finds his life completely changed with one online purchase. This happened to be a very beautiful, porcelain doll that also happens to be alive. Suddenly, Jun becomes her master and ends up taking care of several other living dolls that arrive. By episode 8, Jun and his sister Nori are living with three dolls. Nori makes Hinaichigo favorite dish, flower-topped hamburgers! This hamburger steak dish is a common home-cooked meal in Japan, but with a cute addition. Check out our recipe for this super cute dinner!

Recipe adapted from @へたくそ料理 runnyrunny999 and Japanese Cooking 101. 

Easy-to-print recipe PDF here.

Ingredients

Hamburger Steak patty

200 g (about half a pound) ground beef
150 g (¼ ) onions
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
Nutmeg (opt)
1 beaten egg
15 g (about ¼ cup) panko
30 mL (3 tbsp) milk

Sauce

Water
¼ cup ketchup
¼ cup worcestershire sauce
1 part worcestershire sauce, 1 part ketchup (err on more ketchup)

Egg

1 egg
1 flower-shaped egg mold

Directions

Makes about 4-5 patties

1. Finely chop about a quarter of an onion.

2. Fry chopped onions in frying pan until softened and set aside to cool. 

3. In a large bowl, soften the quarter cup of panko crumbs with three tablespoons of milk.

4. Add the meat and mix with your hands. Knead until the meat is sticky. You don't have to use 100% ground beef; you could use any combination of ground meat substitute, such as 50% ground beef - 50% ground pork or 100% ground turkey. Whatever is your preference. 

5. Add the sugar, soy sauce, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper. Then knead it again until it is well mixed. 

6. Add the cooked onions you set aside and knead to mix.

7. Beat one egg in a bowl, then add to the meat mixture and knead. 

8. Once you have thoroughly mixed the meat, separate the meat into balls for the patties. Pass each ball back and forth between your hands to remove any air pockets. If the meat is too warm, you can place it back into the fridge to cool down a little. At this point, if you have too much meat, you can saran wrap a portion and freeze to make later. Make sure you've formed the meat into whatever you'll make next time before you store it.

9. Flatten each ball into patties. Indent the middles slightly to make sure they cook all the way through. 

10. Heat some cooking oil in a frying pan over medium heat, then place the patties in the pan. Flip over when each side is golden brown. This should take about a minute or two, depending on how thick your patties are. 

11. Cover the frying pan and change the heat to low. Cook for about another 3 minutes. Uncover and check if each side is browned enough. Then remove from heat. 

12. Place the hamburger steak patty onto a plate. 

13. To make the sauce, use the same pan you just cooked the patty in. In a bowl, mix a 1:1 ratio of ketchup and worcestershire sauce together. We used about 1/4 cup of each, but you can change the amount depending on how many patties you are making. Mix in a little bit of water and stir until evenly combined. 

14. Add the sauce to the frying pan and cook the liquid down on low heat. Once it has been reduced a little, remove from heat and set aside. 

15. Heat up a pan with oil in it. Use a flower-shaped egg mold and oil the sides. Place an egg with the yolk in the middle and fry. Try to push the whites around to make sure each of the petals is filled. You might also have to push the yolk to center it. Once all of the white has cooked, remove from heat.

16. Pour your sauce on top of the hamburger steak. Then place the flower egg on top. Garnish the plate with french fries and broccoli

17. Feed it to your magical dolls.