「ハロウィンバーガープレート」

Halloween burger plate – let play trick-and-treat with the monsters on your table! Last part (four) of our 2017 Halloween-inspired spooky recipes!

A lively Halloween set for dinner. Because it is cute and friendly, I don’t think kids will be scared of our monster pals, right?

Although I have the impression that in general people are not really aware of its origins and detailed traditions (it is a Western tradition’s celebration after all), many places in Japan organize Halloween trick-or-treat events, costume parties and parades for kids and adults. For instance, the two local shōtengai located close to the place where I live organized this event:

Family fun with games and multiple events at the same time! Halloween in Japan is a “pick-your-costume and let’s enjoy the party!” season. Overall the decoration you will find around the streets and the shopping malls are very cute instead of being scary – this is the kind of mood that I wanted to present in today’s dish.

This recipe is more about plating technique rather than a cooking. It is, basically, small hamburger patties over a blood-colored sauce (I used gochujang paste with garlic but you may also use ketchup), green farofa made with panko, garlic and horenso, ghost-shaped chips and parma ham in the middle. I used cheese and nori to make the decoration more interesting.

By the way, it is quite curious that in recent years, Halloween has become quite a popular event in Japan – especially in big cities. It was introduced by foreigners in the past, yet only about five year ago the thing has become really huge. That’s because it seems that young adults are the main audience of most Halloween events nowadays: many izakaya, bars and dance clubs host special events that offer generous entrance ticket discount to people wearing full-body costumes or some festive accessories.

We can say that the typical Tokyo Halloween party image is…. crowds, all kind of costumes, parties, crowds, themed snacks and drinks… lots of alcohol and more groups of people. Look how crowded Shibuya was last year:

Then let’s start today’s recipe! Our previous graveyard was a kabocha soup, now we will make a graveyard made of halloween hamburger monsters!

Halloween burger

1. 100g of pork and beef ground meat mix
2. 1 egg
3. 20g of panko
4. Salt, pepper

Panko farofa moss

1. 100g of panko
2. 1 garlic
3. 50g of horenso, thinly cut
4. 10g of butter

Extra decoration

1. Potato chips
2. Ketchup or any red colored-sauce (“fake blood”)
3. Processed cheese
4. Prosciutto (Parma ham) or any other dry-cured ham
   

First part: hamburger patties

1. combine the ingredients in a bowl
2. Season with salt and pepper
3. Mix well until combined.
4. Make small shaped patties using your hands.
5. Grill the burgers using a grill or a hot pan.
6. Reserve the patties.

Second part: farofa

1. Add the butter to a frying pan on medium heat.
2. Mix horenso and garlic in the pan and cook them slightly.
3. Add the panko and cook until toasted.
4. Season the farofa with salt and pepper.
5. Finally, assemble the dish with the fake blood sauce, the halloween hamburger patties, the farofa grass and the extra decoration pieces.

When cutting the cheese, I suggest using pincers and a small knife to handle it.