same thing, different feel

for those who know me well, balance of colours and food groups are really important in a meal. the above tri-coloured beef soboro don is the proof of my belief in food:

the hues of green come from the lovely crisp butterhead lettuce and sweet green peas, the yellow from mirin-flavoured jap style scrambled eggs, the reds from the capsicum and the brown from a mixture of tofu, beef and onion mince soaked up in a rich and well-seasoned sauce of red wine, mirin, soy sauce and honey

these colours not only make the food more presentable visually, it also makes it alot more palatable because every single bite consists of substance and taste:)

but before i blow my own trumpet any further, let's take a look at how the same ingredients can be made into a more compact form for convenience as a bento/ take-away lunch. every single thing that you have seen on top in the beef soboro don can be converted into a mini-beef rice burger!

want to learn how to do it? the directions are simple:



MUST-HAVE Ingredients: beef mince, hard firm tofu (crushed), 1/2 red capsicum (finely diced), 1/2 onion ( finely diced), 2 cloves of garlic (finely minced), 2 TB soy sauce, 1 TB mirin, 1 TB sesame oil, salt and pepper to taste, 1-2 TB flour or polento (depending on how mushy your mince mixture is)

TOPPINGS: 1/2 red capsicum (sliced thinly), 1/2 onion (sliced thinly), mushrooms (sliced), shredded iceberg lettuce or any other greens of your preference

OPTIONAL Ingredients: 1 carrot (finely diced), a few mushrooms (finely diced), 1 egg (beaten and mixed into mince mixture to bing ingredients but can be omitted to reduce calories)

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.

2. Set aside ( with cling wrap on for germs protection!!!) in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

3. Form mince mixture into patties of desired size. Coat surface with polento and pan- fry till surface is golden brown.

BURGER SAUCE: 2 TB soy sauce, 2 TB mirin, 2 TB red wine, 1 TB honey, 2 TB brown sugar (adjust quantity of sauces according to taste and number of patties you are cooking)

4. Heat sauce ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and keep stirring to avoid sugar and honey burning at bottom of pan.

5. Add in sliced capsicum, onion and mushroom and stir till softened so that they can soak up the sauce.

6. At the same time, add beef patties that has been pan-fried on the surface. Turn fire to low heat.

6. Flip beef patties to other side after cooking for about 5-10 minutes (depending on size of yr patty).

7. Cook other side for about 5 minutes. Flip over and keep doing so till patty is cooked to desired done-ness and colour is deep brown with a reddish glow. (hard to describe! i cook alot based on intuition!)

And tada! Bento beef burgers to go!

P.S: at the end of writing this extremely long post, i realised that i've blogged about these burgers before! ahhh! silly forgetful me...oh wells...hahaha

much love,

granny bear