non-vegetarian red bean patties (a failed attempt)

Being very curious about beans, I decided to try out a bean patty to see how far the beans can go. Almost all recipes I saw used starch as a glue because they the patties are fake hamburgers. I'm no vegetarian. I'd rather have meat than starch as a glue. So I tried out the following experiment, in which the beef is primarily for the flavor and for holding the bean together.


Recipe: non-vegetarian red bean patties


Ingredients:
- 1 cup dried small red beans, soaked for 3 days
- 4 cup meat stock
- 1 tablespoon (TB) onion powder
- 1 teaspoon (tp) garlic, finely chopped
- 1 tp basil flakes
- 1/4 tp salt
- 1/4 tp cumin powder
- 6 oz minced beef 85% lean
- 1 tablespoon (TB) chipotle oil
- 1 TB worcestershire sauce


Procedure:
1. Cook soaked red beans in a pot with meat stock on medium to med-high heat for at least 2 hours until beans break. Keep the beans immersed in liquid at all times. When beans break, add onion powder, garlic, basil, salt and cumin powder to mixture. Cook until liquid almost dries out. Stir very frequently to prevent sticking. Once the liquid is almost dried, turn heat off. Use a potato musher to mush the beans into a coarse mixture.
2. After the mixture cools down, use hands to work on the coarse mixture, both to knead and to squash any whole beans. At this point, the mixture is somewhat chunky and it does not quite hold together. Add ground beef, worcestershire sauce and chiptotle oil. Mix well, and use hands to knead the mixture vigorously. The more the kneading, the more the mixture develops a gluey feel. Knead about 30 minutes.
3. Partition dough into small pieces that can be handled by the palms. Roll each piece firmly between two palms for a minute or so to develop stickiness. Make into desired type of shape , such as a flat patty or a flower. Patty-shaped pieces can be pan-fried while other shapes need to be baked.
4. For pan-frying, spray a flat non-stick pan with Pam (or use 2 TB oil). Place patties on pan and cook each side until the bottom detaches from pan. Flip to cook the other side. Takes about 5 minutes per side. For baking, place pieces on a baking pan coated with oil. Bake covered by aluminum foil at 350F for 30 minutes or until there comes the aroma of beef.

The patties have a hint of beefy taste without the fat. By themselves they are a bit dry. But they go very well with ketchup and yellow mustard! They also do very well with some tomato and cheese toppings.