Amaama to Bonkler: Stewed Hamburg Steak

It’s been a while since I’ve last written anything, but after watching episode 3 of Amaama to Inazuma (Sweetness and Lightning) this season, I really wanted to try making the Stewed Hamburg Steak (Nikomi Hamburg) they made in that episode.

Stewed Hamburg Steak

Hamburg steak, as the name implies is more or less a hamburger patty that is served without bunnage. You hear about it a lot in anime. For example, here’s Cocoa from Gochiusa S2 getting excited about eating her big sister’s Special Hamburg Steak:

Cocoa is about the steak.

Or Makoto and friends making it in cooking class in Flying Witch:

Even Nao can’t mess this up.

According to Wikipedia, it’s originally a German dish, named after the city of Hamburg. Hamburger refers to the sandwich but Hamburg steak is just the patty.

Like in Amaama to Inazuma, we’re going to be making the stewed (nikomi) version. Instead of cooking it through a grill or pan, we’re simply going to brown the outside and then stew the patty in a tomato sauce over some time. It’s kinda like a quick braise. It takes longer, but the sauce infuses into the steak (and you don’t have to worry about over/undercooking the steak like single dad does in the show).

So how do we actually make it? Luckily, there’s a very helpful recipe that’s actually shown in the show in helpful picture-book format. One nice thing about this recipe is that it’s (mostly) one pan, meaning not many dishes to wash afterwards.

Hamburg steak recipe as per Amaama to Inazuma

Ingredients (makes 3 servings: single dad, daughter, and student*):

*Or leftovers for yourself the next few days like in my case.

Hamburg steak:

Ground beef – 1 lb. (amount is flexible depending on the size you want the steak to be) (also, a lot of recipes use a mix of pork and beef, we’ll be using 100% beef because AMERICA)

Onion – 1

Egg – 1

Panko or bread crumbs - 1/4 cup

Milk –  2 tablespoons

Olive oil – 1 tablespoon

Salt – 1/2 teaspoon (to taste)

Pepper – A dash (to taste)

Sauce:

Tomato sauce – 1 16oz can

Worchestershire sauce – 1 tablespoon

Ketchup – 1 tablespoon

Bouillon cube – 1 cube

Bay leaf – 1

Recipe:

First step is to dice the onion and then pan-fry it.

How to dice onions you might ask? Kotori’s mom has you covered:

Dicing onions via Amaama to Inazuma

Really, all you’re doing is cutting it in 3 axes: by length, width, and then depth. Just try not to cut the root or you’ll start crying. Let Ramsay show you how.

After dicing the onions, put about a tablespoon of olive oil into a frying pan and pan-fry the onions until they “sweat” and are transparent, about 5min.

Stir-frying onions

After frying the onions, push it off to the side in your pan and let it sit and cool for a bit. (Ignore that I have two different kinds of onions in the pan, was using leftover onions)

Combine panko/breadcrumbs and milk into a bowl and beat in the egg, then combine with ground beef, salt, pepper, and stir-fried onions.

First, combine the panko/breadcrumbs and milk in a large mixing bowl and let it soak for a bit. Then, beat in the egg.

Panko, milk, and eggs

Add in the ground beef, salt, pepper, and stir-fried onions to the panko and milk mixture.

Everything else.

Mix with your hands and form patties.

Yep, use your hands. Get all up in there and mix it up.

Get in there (wash your hands first tho).

This part is disgoodstring as according to Nao from Flying Witch. You’ll see what I mean.

Disgoodstring

Form a rough, patty shape using your hands. Then we get to do the fun part: throwing the patty between our hands to let the air out, as demonstrated by Kotori in the show:

Forming patties via Kotori

Of course, if you need to bond with your daughter, consider the two-person method:

Two-person patty forming

After the patties are formed, make an indentation in the center of each patty with your thumb. This helps ensure that the patties don’t puff up in the middle.

Indent them patties

Brown the patties and remove from pan.

We’re just gonna brown the patties for a bit, not actually cook them fully. This is because the actual cooking happens during the stewing process. But, the Maillard reaction from browning results in some mighty tasty meat.

Set the heat to high or medium-high. The browning is pretty quick, just a minute or two per side. Notice that I didn’t cook it until it was entirely brown.

Browning the patties

After the patties have been browned, remove them from the pan but keep the oil and beef and onion debris in the pan to help flavor the sauce.

Make sauce in pan.

Combine the canned tomato sauce, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, bay leaf, and bouillon cube in the same pan, along with the oil and beef/onion debris from browning the patties. Mix and heat the whole mixture at medium heat until it starts to bubble and simmer.

Simmering tomato sauce

Add patties back to pan and stew for 20min.

Lower the heat to low and add the patties into the pan with the sauce.

Simmering patties

Cover the pan and let the whole thing simmer for 10min.

After 10min, flip the patties and let the whole thing simmer again for another 10min.

Sit back and resist the urge.

Fry up a sunny-side-up egg.

When the steaks are almost done stewing, let’s fry up an egg as the finishing touch.

The finishing touch.

In another pan, just add about a teaspoon of oil and then heat it up in high heat. Crack in an egg and let it fry for 2min or so.

Fry this egg up.

Then, cover the pan and let it cook for a few more minutes to solidify the yolk a bit (makes it easier to transfer over).

Assemble and serve!

Stewed Hamburg Steak!

Let’s compare to the show:

Close enough?

Enjoy, let that yolk spill out and make a mess, the way it should be.

Nom.

Nom.