Rika's TOKYO CUISINE: Pork Ginger Rice Burger

Dining with the Chef!

Hello and welcome to Dining with the Chef.

I'm Rika Yukimasa.

Today, I'd like to show you a Japanese variation of the ever so popular hamburger.

Compressed rice patties are substituted for the buns, the burger is filled with stir-fried pork seasoned with ginger sauce and leafy greens.

And you have a Pork Ginger Rice Burger.

I'm also going to make a Japanese-style coleslaw.

It's a side dish of shredded cabbage and shiso leaves tossed in sesame oil dressing.

Put together, you have a Japanese version of a high-end fast food lunch set that's healthy and easy to make.

Tokyo, an Asian city with the largest metropolitan population in the world, the boundaries between old Japan and futuristic Japan are blurred in this metropolis.

The food here is a fusion of cuisine not just from around Asia, but around the globe.

In this program, Tokyo-based culinary artist, Rika Yukimasa demonstrates the current trends from her own kitchen, near Tokyo Bay.

Our co-host is Patrick Harlan, widely known in Japan as Pakkun.

Rika's Tokyo Cuisine.

Today, a burger that combines two Japanese favorites - Pork Ginger and Grilled Onigiri Rice Balls.

So when I think of a hamburger, I think of first happiness.

But then I think of a big beef patty on two fluffy buns.

Bread. Right?

Right.

What exactly is a rice burger?

Rice burger is kind of like, we use Yakionigiri.

And we use instead of buns.

I see.

Yakionigiri! You all know, Onigiri, right?

Rice balls, they're sort of compacted rice like they squeeze like this into a ball, and a Yakionigiri is one of those that's been cooked in a skillet, or on a grill, and they're awesome.

- Super popular, right?
- Right.

So, it's really great for people who are avoiding flour who wants to try the gluten free food.

Right.

So, we've got Yakionigiri for the buns.

What's the meat?

Ginger pork.

- Oh, Shogayaki.
- Shogayaki.

I love ginger pork.

It's one of those great dishes you can have in any cafeteria at home and restaurant with sub menu.

It's also super popular.

So, you've got the super popular Yakionigiri, with the super popular Shogayaki ginger pork in the middle.

Exactly.

What could be better?

Let's take a look at the ingredients for the rice burgers.

The best cut for pork ginger is shoulder loin, and for the seasoning, a Japanese sauce that goes well with just about everything.

So if we're going to make rice buns, I suppose we need to cook the rice.

But not today - because I'm going to use this easy-to-use, convenient rice packet.

A quick and easy way to prepare the buns is to use pre-cooked rice packets.

Just pop them in a microwave for a couple of minutes to enjoy fluffy, hot rice.

These are hot. So be careful.

And it's very important to use japonica rice because japonica rice has stickiness and it's very suitable for Yakionigiri.

Right.

And how many grams per bun?

Well, presumably, like 75.

Because we want to divide into half.

Freshly cooked rice is really hot.

Are you actually going to squeeze those by hand?

We do. We Japanese people can do that, but maybe it's difficult.

So I have prepared these bowls, which will help you.

- This is a cool technique.
- Yes.

You divide the bowl into half.

- The rice in half.
- Yes.

So, you want to have small patties.

So instead of doing with your hand directly, you use this.

- It's like making a cocktail.
- Yeah.

Okay.

Ta-da~♬ That's really cool.

Using bowls makes it easy to form the rice into round shapes for the buns.

So what's important - you want to have instead of oval shape, you want to have round shape.

- Okay. Ah, because we're making burgers.
- Yes.

Then, make it bigger.

Okay.

See you have small buns already.

Sure.

- Okay.
- That's cute.

- This is the size of a Japanese rice ball.
- Yeah.

This is a very good way.

And one thing... it's a little bit better to...

you place the rice... relatively to the left or right.

So that you want to sandwich them, right?

Or you end up with one edge flat.

How hard do I want to make the patty?

Do I want to push hard?

Because I'm a pretty big guy.

I've got some big muscles.

I can flatten this out if you want.

Well, it's just kind of... well, you don't want to do this.

...maybe a centimeter or eight millimeters.

In thickness?

- Okay.
- I mean, the thickness.

- That's a pretty good looking bun.
- Yeah.

Okay.

- Great.
- Perfect!

So, what do we do now?

So now we're going to grill the buns.

So first you pre-heat the pan.

On medium heat.

And wait until it gets pretty hot.

And then we don't coat with oil.

We first do without.

-Really?
-Without. Yes.

Oh, okay.

So, what happens if you use the oil first?

It somehow helps to crumble.

It makes it crumble.

You don't want to kind of like make a hard part around the rice.

So first you don't put anything.

No oil, no sauce, nothing.

You wait for the outside of the rice to sort of sear.

- Yeah, exactly.
- Okay.

Now the pan is heated.

Place.

Nice.

You can hear the rice, it's already cracking.

Cracking yes.

You started it on medium heat.

And what do you end up cooking it on?

On low heat.

On low heat for a long time.

I see.

So in order to cook Yakionigiri, you can either do with, as I said, charcoal, or a grill, or toaster; various.

What's your recommendation?

Well, my recommendation is frying pan.

I think it's the easiest.

And you can control the heat easily.

So, I recommend this.

So how long do you think we should wait?

Usually it takes 7 minutes each.

- 7 minutes per side?
- Yeah.

- Okay.
- So we'll just wait.

- Be patient.
- Yeah.

Proper heat is crucial for making Yakionigiri.

Preheat a frying pan over medium heat, place the rice patties and cook slowly over low heat.

How are we doing?

Great.

So lucky 7 minutes has passed.

And now you just turn it over.

You see that kind of surface becoming crispy?

Oh, I see.

So it's not... It's not burnt.

- It's just lightly seared.
- Right.

Now, I've tried to cut down this time - a lot. Trying to cook with medium heat and everything, but at low heat it's 7 minutes, it's the best recipe.

- Right.
- Yes.

- You don't want to burn your rice.
- No.

So, let's wait another 7 minutes.

Meanwhile, let's make the sauce.

Just combine a little bit of sugar.

Like half a teaspoon.

And two teaspoons of soy sauce.

I see.

Grill both sides for seven minutes and turn off the heat.

And from here, you can use this "hake," a brush.

And if you don't have brush, you can use paper towel.

Okay. Just dip it.

All right.

Cook the buns before applying the sauce to keep them from crumbling.

The coating helps to bind the surface grains together.

And this is it.

You know, once you turn it, it starts to smell so nice.

I see.

I think everyone in my apartment would want to come and try.

For sure.

So you're going to flip it over and cook that side after you baste it.

With the residual heat.

Oh, but just with residual heat. Interesting.

You hear the sizzling sound?

This is how you make Osenbei - rice cracker, too, you know?

- Really?
- Yeah.

In a way, yes.

Okay.

Oh, it smells so good.

Perfect Yakionigiri.

Great.

After applying the sauce, remove the buns from the pan.

So what do we do with the pork?

Okay, pork.

Well, in Japan, we have thinly sliced pork.

You can buy it anywhere.

Yes, but in the States, it's difficult to find, right?

In other countries, it's not that common. That's true.

- So we're going to thinly slice this meat.
- Okay.

- This one is pork shoulder.
- Pork shoulder. Okay.

If you like a balance of meat and fat, shoulder is the part you have to use.

- Belly is a little too fatty?
- Yes.

Okay.

And this one, you're going to just cut as thin as possible.

I see.

Then you may cut, kind of like thin.

And then what you do is you just pound them with your knife.

So if you're having a hard time cutting it to the appropriate thinness, you can cut a little bit thicker and pound them.

Yes.

Cut the pork into 5 millimeter slices and lightly pound to make them thinner, so they can be sandwiched between the buns.

Okay. So, this pork is ready.

Okay.

- Should we go now, move on to the sauce?
- Sure.

Sauce. You have to remember three S and M.

It's soy sauce, sake and sugar.

Plus, one Mirin.

Mirin.

And if you don't have Sake and Mirin, just by any chance, you can substitute with water and sugar.

Okay.

And we add same amount of ginger.

Okay. About how much?

One tablespoon.

You know, it's so much easier if you kind of symbolize the recipe.

Then you don't have to depend on books.

- Sure.
- Yes.

Add sugar, mirin, sake, and soy sauce to the grated ginger and mix.

Marinate the pork in the ginger sauce to reduce the meaty smell.

Five to ten minutes should do it.

- Now we preheat the pan to high.
- Okay.

And then pour over a little bit of sesame oil.

And from here, you have to watch me do, because I'm going to do it really quickly.

All right.

No blinking.

No blinking!

Just place it.

Heat the sesame oil and cook the pork over high heat.

And then from here, you can start to turn the meat.

Okay.

And what you do is you want to seal the sauce and the fat and everything into that, into this piece of meat.

Spread the slices in the pan without overlapping and cook both sides.

Smells so wonderful.

Perfect.

Yeah.

Here, you turn off the heat.

All the way off?

- All the way.
- Okay.

You do not want to overcook the meat.

And by using residual heat.

Which I do all the time, this is really the trick of my cooking, is instead of telling you to lower the heat, I just say turn off the heat.

Right.

After browning both sides, turn off the heat to cook through with residual heat.

And from here, even though you see some parts are still pink, then you turn over, and you cook with the residual heat.

Right.

Mh-mm. It's looks beautiful.

So let's make a burger.

Yes.

Okay. So here, you place the buns here.

- And put a little bit of wasabi.
- Wasabi.

- Nice.
- Not a lot. Unless you want to bully someone.

- Yeah, it's got quite a kick.
- Yeah.

If our friends can't get wasabi, is there anything else we can use?

- You can use horseradish or mustard.
- Okay.

- Little bit of mayonnaise.
- Sure.

A little spicy mustard. Just very thinly spread probably.

And place some lettuce.

You put the lettuce over the rice.

That will protect it from the juices, so that it doesn't crumble.

Yeah.

Oh, that's nice.

And this little bit of wasabi and mayonnaise.

- Oh, it's beautiful.
- Beautiful. Nice.

I noticed that you've sort of used this black tray as a frame.

Are you going to put other things on the tray or just the plate in the center?

Plate in the center.

- So you use this tray almost like framing; a frame when it comes to paintings.
- Like a picture frame?

- Yes.
- Okay.

Also, don't worry about, you know, like sometimes you make a crack on this porcelain.

But we do "Kin-tsugi," like the ones that I have.

My daughter, she broke that.

"Kin-tsugi," that literally means "gold joinery."

So, you place "Urushi," which is the "Urushi..."

Lacquer?

Lacquer, and then the gold.

And then you make it harder.

So you bring back the beauty.

I think it came from "wabi-sabi," which appreciates imperfection instead of perfection.

I feel sad in the beginning, but just accept the beauty.

Sure.

Now for the Japanese-style coleslaw.

The recipe calls for sesame oil.

But if you don't have any on hand, you can use olive oil instead.

So when I think of coleslaw, I think of cabbage and mayonnaise mostly.

How are you going to turn this into a Japanese-y dish?

By using sushi vinegar.

Oh, sushi vinegar, which is, of course, used to make sushi, but it's also used in lots of other stuff, especially in Rika's Kitchen.

Right.

Well, sushi vinegar contains sugar and kombu, which gives umami flavor.

And vinegar and salt.

And you know, it takes time to combine everything all together.

But when you taste the coleslaw, usually has a little bit of sweetness and kind of sourness from the vinegar, it's all combined.

So, I thought, "why don't I just mix everything?"

What a great idea.

So the basic ratio for sushi vinegar dressing is one to one.

First, can you mix the sushi vinegar one tablespoon?

It's got, of course, vinegary smell, but you can also smell like the konbu kelp.

Yes.

And one tablespoon of olive oil first.

You sprinkle a little bit of salt.

And what the secret is, instead of using this unknown oil, you've got to use really fresh and good oil, right?

So the dressing tastes much better.

Let me give this a little taste.

Ah, it's sweet.

But oh, the olive oil's so good, but it doesn't feel greasy because you also have these sort of vinegar slicing through it, making it lighter and tangier.

Right.

- That's delicious. I can eat that all day!
- Yeah.

Usually French dressing, If you want to have like regular dressing, you have like three portion of olive oil and then one vinegar.

Okay.

Because you don't want to have to tingly taste.

Right, right, right.

However, because sushi vinegar has a bit of sweetness and a mild flavor, you can have 1:1, which is you are reducing amount of oil intake.

I've come so far. I'm going to have to try.

- Just a little...
- Yeah. Little bit mayonnaise.

Well, you can add one tablespoon of mayonnaise in the olive oil dressing.

- In the olive oil?
- Yeah.

- Interesting.
- I've experimented a lot with this.

Really?

And I think I can make a dressing company.

But you've given away your secrets.

Um, it's almost like, like a pudding with the mayonnaise in there.

And of course, it all has the base as the sushi vinegar so it's still light.

What a discovery.

It's a big secret.

Now, let's prep the vegetables.

So now, I'm going to show you how to cook, cut, just shred the cabbage.

You don't cut it in the round form, you've flattened it out first.

Yes.

And then this way, you can cut it really thinly.

I see.

The result is so different.

Because you have really thinly sliced cabbage.

Right.

Cabbage is rich in digestive enzymes, so it's often paired with fatty, pork dishes.

Sprinkle a little bit of salt, just a little bit, like one pinch.

And then first, you sort of like give the basic saltiness when you make the dressing.

Okay.

So this time, sushi vinegar, one portion.

It's about one and a half tablespoon.

You can use olive oil, but this time sesame oil.

I want to give a little kick with this "yuzu-kosho."

So, "kosho" in Japanese means pepper, but it's actually saltier; the flavor.

Pour over.

Okay.

Here you just mix it.

So easy.

And if you wanna go on the more nutritious side, you can also add some sesame seeds on top.

In Japanese cooking, we always try to place everything kind of three-dimensionally.

And then I will shred this Shiso leaves.

Cut the shiso leaves into shreds.

If you don't have any shiso on hand, you can also use basil or Italian parsley.

Shiso is that also one of those things which, you know, most of the dishes you can do without.

But when you add it, it makes a 90-point dish, a 100-point dish!

It gives it that extra boost to the top.

Why do you do that?

To make it fluffier.

Oh, okay.

Just like your hair.

You blow dry.

Place this on top.

Holding like the chopstick vertically, place it on top.

Gorgeous.

Yeah.

So, cabbage Fuji is done.

Mount Fuji Coleslaw.

Perfect.

Pair the refreshing coleslaw with the pork ginger rice burger, and you have a healthy Japanese variation of a high-end, fast food lunch set.

And now the moment I've been waiting for.

"Itadakimasu."

Oh, wow.

It's marvellous.

Yeah. Thank you.

You've got the sort of tangy, the spicy ginger.

But you've also got the creamy pork and the savory soy sauce and Mirin on there.

It just soaks into the rice, makes it all better.

But today I get to hold it in my hand.

That's fun!

Rice buns. They're really holding their shape well.

Crispy on the outside.

They've got that savory soy sauce flavor on them on the outside.

But the rice inside is still a little fluffy and it still got that, that nice complement aspect to these sharper flavors.

It's sweet, soft Japanese rice to go well with the spicier, more full flavors of the other food.

I want to try this with other food inside, too.

Maybe even just a regular old beef patty, see how that goes.

Hamburger and also like grilled vegetables, that would go really well.

Anything that goes well with rice...

Right.

...will go well with rice burger.

Let's move on to the cabbage coleslaw.

Get some shiso on top.

Oh, that's fantastic.

Thank you.

It's still crispy.

And the vinegar really brings out that sharpness, I think.

But we're using sushi vinegar.

So it's also got depth and a little complexity.

It's got the kombu umami flavor in there.

And of course, because we're using sesame oil, it's also got this wonderful aroma, this Asian texture and smoothness in your mouth.

Oh, so good.

And they go really well together.

Today, I transformed a classic Japanese dish into an easy-to-eat rice burger.

It also showcases some of the techniques used in Japanese cuisine, including how to make grilled Onigiri and simple ratios for making versatile Japanese seasonings and dressings.

So, I hope you have fun making different kinds of rice burgers.

Thank you so much.

You've given us ideas and techniques.

Now we can experiment on our own.

Because it's sometimes fun to be dining, and, be the chef.

We'll see you again next time.

Bye bye.

Bye bye.

Let's review today's recipes.

First, the rice burger.

Heat up the rice pack and form the rice into patties.

Grill both sides for seven minutes.

Coat the buns with a mixture of soy sauce and sugar.

Marinate the thinly sliced pork in grated ginger, sugar, mirin, and soy sauce, and cook over high heat.

Once both sides are brown, turn off the heat and cook through with residual heat, so the meat remains tender and juicy.

Spread wasabi and mayonnaise over the buns and assemble your burger.

Next, the Japanese-style coleslaw.

Make the dressing by mixing sushi vinegar, sesame oil, and yuzu-kosho, toss with the shredded cabbage, and top with shredded shiso leaves to serve.

That's it!

Turn your house into a high-end burger joint with Rika's delicious recipes.