MOTOism: MOTOburger (Rice Buns)
If you have been to Japan, you've been to MOS burger, the best burger chain. Apparently it is coming to the U.S., which will be great. Their burgers -- from the regular MOS burger with bolognese sauce, to tonkatsu burger with cabbage, to real-deal teriyaki chicken to rice burgers -- are made to order, so they are super fresh. Plus the ingredients are always quite impressive.
Using rice for the bun instead of bread is a brilliant idea (for the gluten-free folks too!) so I decided to make my own version.
It turned out extremely easy, and you can experiment in different ways. Once you cook your rice, sprinkle corn starch (for 3 cups of rice, I sprinkled about 2 tbsp of starch), salt to taste, and sesame seeds, and mix together well. By adding starch, rice sticks very well and it won't break away.
Although I am using short grain sticky rice, it's still important to add starch in the rice to make sure everything sticks together well. I tried this without salt, or sesame, but having a bit more flavor in rice is better and I definitely recommend flavoring your rice before making patty.
Once the rice cools enough to touch it, grab a ball, place on saran wrap, press pretty tightly so that they form into a patty shape.
Be sure to press them tight, but not too tight to mush up the rice.
Once you make the patty, you can serve as is, or you can cook it with a bit of oil in a pan. By doing so, you make a similar texture to yaki-onigiri (grilled rice balls) -- crispy outside, moist and soft inside. Some people brush soy sauce on the rice during this process, which is a nice addition.
Sandwich it with whatever type of burger meat you prefer. I made my teriyaki turkey shiso burger. 1lb ground turkey, 1 cup of panko bread crumbs, 1 chopped onion, bunch of chopped shiso, salt, soy sauce, a bit of sugar and 1 egg mixed together. Cook the burger, and when it's about to be done, add the mixture of water, soy sauce, sugar, mirin. Once it bubbles up, add some starch water mixture to thicken the sauce. Alternative or vegetarian option is to sandwich kinpira gobo (sauteed burdock root), which MOS burger continuously sells well.
For a party, you can make mini "slider" versions, like above. I stuffed rice into a mini muffin tin (which was a pain in the ass), sprayed with a bit of oil, then baked in the oven to create the same texture of crispy outside, soft inside. I topped with a mini teriyaki chicken shiso burger.
The MOTOburger was very popular both times I made them. One thing to remember is to make the patty pretty thin. If your patty is too thick, the rice will overwhelm the burger.
Yum yum.
