Basic meat and tofu mixture for mini-burgers, meatballs and more

I spent about an hour on Sunday making and cooking up a big batch of a basic burger mixture. The mix is very versatile, so I made four different things from it. Now I have enough mini-burgers, meatballs and more in my freezer for at least 20 or more bento portions. It was an hour well spent! I love just knowing that my freezer has a nice stock of ready-to-go bento items - it takes the pressure off considerably on busy mornings.

Recipe: Basic burger-meatball mixture

You can use more ground beef or ground veal or chicken instead of the tofu. The tofu makes it a bit lighter.

• 450g / 1 lb ground beef
• 225g / about 8 oz. ground pork
• 225g / about 8 oz. (about half a block) soft or silken tofu
• 1 cup fresh soft breadcrumbs (made by whizzing up 2 slices of bread in a food processor)
• 1 large onion
• A little milk or soymilk
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp or so black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. or so nutmeg (optional)
• Oil for cooking

If necessary, make fresh breadcrumbs by chopping up 2 slices of bread (white or whole wheat) in a food processor. Moisten with a little milk.

Chop up the onion finely (I do this in the food processor too, after the breadcrumbs.) Saute in a little oil in a frying pan until soft.

Drain the tofu well and crumble.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Mix with your hands until a bit sticky and paste-like. The tofu should be all smooth and incorporated into the meat.

Heat up a frying pan with a little oil. Form the meat mixture into various shapes, as follows:

Mini-burgers: Take about 3 tablespoon-portions and form into little patties. Fry on one side, then turn and fry on the other with a lid on the pan for about 4 minutes until the patties are a bit puffed up.

Meatballs: Take 1 tablespoon-portions and form little balls. Roll around in the pan with a little oil until browned on all sides.

Stuffed tofu slices: Cut a slit into a small block of tofu, and stuff with about 1/2 Tbs. of the meat mixture. Dust the tofu with cornstarch and fry, turning all around, in a hot frying pan until browned on all sides.

Stuffed mushrooms: Twist off the stems of medium-size mushrooms, leaving the caps (use the stems for something else). Stuff each cap with about 1 Tbs. of the meat mixture, pressing down well. Put the stuffed mushrooms meat side down in a hot frying pan, and sprinkle the mushroom cap with a little salt. Turn over when the meat side has browned, lower the heat to low, put on a lid and let steam-cook for about 5-6 minutes.

Cool everything completely, and freeze. You can just put them in plastic freezer bags and take out only what you need.

Defrosting and saucing

Defrost either in a microwave for about 3-4 minutes, depending on how big your burgers or meatballs etc. are; or in a small frying pan with the lid on to steam-cook them. You can also pop them in a toast oven from frozen, wrapped in foil - they’ll take about 8-10 minutes this way.

The mini-burgers and so on will taste a bit bland when cold. To perk them up, you’ll want to add a sauce to them. The easiest are plain ketchup, oyster sauce, “Bulldog” sauce, or even soy sauce. Just heat up the sauce of your choice in a small frying pan and toss the defrosted mini-burger in it.

This little mini-burger is sauced with a mixture of 1 Tbs. ketchup, 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce, and about 2 Tbs. red wine (per 3 of this mini-burgers). Add all the sauce ingredients to a small frying pan and mix; add the burgers to the hot pan, and coat with the sauce.

Teriyaki sauce [1] is also great, especially for the stuffed tofu slices. Sweet and sour sauce [2] works well too. The stuffed mushroom caps may not need any sauce at all - maybe a little drizzle of soy sauce on top if that.

You can also simmer the meatballs in a little homemade or store bought tomato sauce, crumble up the mini-burgers and stir fry with vegetables…and whatever else you can come up with.