DIY Cray !!! Wagyu Beef Loco Moco with The Meatball Shop’s Mushroom Gravy

I started having mad cravings for good Hawaiian comfort food. There aren’t any places that I know of in Hong Kong that do Hawaiian food. The only way of killing this craving was to get into the kitchen. I’ve totally been slacking in that department lately so I thought it was time for some DIY Cray !!! I attempted replicating everybody’s Hawaiian favorite, Loco Moco. Loco Moco is essentially hamburger patties on rice topped with fried eggs and smothered in gravy. Mmmm one of my favs! I thought this would be easy to make and would definitely fill my Hawaiian food void. Plus, I found a recipe for The Meatball Shop’s mushroom gravy! That mushroom gravy is crack. SO GOOD! Click here for more recipes from The Meatball Shop.

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Ingredients (4 servings)
¼ cup olive oil
1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/8-inch slices
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 pound button mushrooms, wiped clean and cut into ¼ -inch slices
2/3 cup dry white wine
4 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
¼ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
Freshly ground black pepper

8 Beef Patties
8 Eggs
2 ½ cups of Japanese short grain rice

Start by cooking your rice. I used Japanese short grain rice but you can use any type of rice you prefer – long grain, brown rice, quinoa etc.

Prep your veggies. 1 large onion, halved and cut into 1/8-inch slices. The onions at my local grocery store were small so I used 2 small onions. 5 cloves of garlic, minced. The recipe doesn’t call for garlic, but I love garlic so I added this just because. Take one pound of button mushrooms, wiped clean and cut into ¼ -inch slices.

Now, for the gravy! Heat ¼ cup olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, salt, and thyme and cook, stirring constantly, until the onions have become soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. I didn’t have any fresh thyme at my Asian grocery store so I used dry thyme. The recipe also says to use 1½ tablespoons of salt, but I only used 2 teaspoons just because the chicken stock I used wasn’t low sodium. I figured I could always add more salt later if necessary.

Add the mushrooms and cook until almost all of their liquid has evaporated, about 8-10 minutes.

Add 2/3 cup dry white wine and continue cooking until the pan is almost dry, about 4-5 minutes.

Add 4 cups of chicken stock and continue cooking until the stock is reduced by half, about 25-30 minutes. Keep an eye on your gravy; you don’t want it to over reduce.

While you wait for your chicken stock to reduce, you can kill time and combine the butter and flour in a small bowl. Mix together with the back of a wooden spoon until a smooth paste forms.

You can also start cooking your beef patties during this time. I bought pre-made Wagyu beef patties at Jusco. I usually go for these patties, cause well it’s the ONLY semi-fresh patties available. They were on-sale I believe, at $100 HKD (approximately $13 USD). They’re pretty good and come pre-seasoned.

Once the 30 minutes have passed and your stock has reduced, add the paste to the simmering gravy and whisk continuously until the paste has completely dissolved and the gravy has thickened.

Stir in the parsley and add pepper to taste. Set the gravy aside until ready to serve.

The eggs are fried last so that they’re still hot and fresh! Eugene found these “eggs laid by kimchi eating hens” at Jusco so we thought we’d try them out since they’re “healthier.” It was hard to tell if they tasted any different than normal eggs though since everything became one delicious hot mess.

Now time for plating! You can do this anyway you want, but I was going for the traditional Hawaiian plating steez. I packed about half a cup of cooked rice into a small rice bowl and placed them on top of the beef patties creating a little mountain of rice.

Next, I set the fried eggs on top of rice, carefully so the yolks don’t break. I then generously doused the plate with the mushroom gravy!

Ta-da! Now mash that ish up and eat it!