Savory beef black beans patties

Since the first black bean patties, I've been trying to refine on it so that it would be appealing to more people than myself. Recently I just got a breakthrough last time when we hosted guests. The direction to go seems to be to make it taste more meaty than beany. A good meat to bean ratio is 4:1. The meat needs to be well cooked and seasoned, like the lasagna filling or the chilly. Then the bean paste and flour is added to thicken it. Finally, it is rolled with oat bran for a crispy coat.

Recipe: Beef and black bean patties (make about 10 2"-diameter patties)

Ingredients:
- 1.25lb lean minced beef
- 3 cloves of garlic
- half a big onion
- 1 tablespoon (TB) oil
- 1.5 teaspoons (tp) coarse kosher salt
- 3 TB mixed herbs flakes of basil, savory, rosemary, thyme, marjoram
- 2 tp ground black pepper
- 1 cup red wine
- 1/3 cup ketchup

- 3/4 cup dried black bean

- 4 cup water

- 2 TB glutinous rice flour
- about 1 cup toasted oat bran

Procedure:
1. Soak dried black beans in 2 cups of water overnight. After the beans have expanded, add the extra 2 cups of water and cook the beans for about 5 minutes on med-high heat. Then turn heat off and allow to sit on the stove top for 1 hour. Heat up the beans again, and boil it until the beans start to flake and the liquid is reduced to barely cover the beans. Then use a food processor to grind the beans, with a little liquid from the cooking, into a very thick paste. Allow to cool.
2. Brown minced beef, garlic and onion with oil in a sauce pan. When the beef has started to give out water, add the mixed herbs and black pepper. Stir and allow the herbs to be heated a little. Then add red wine and kosher salt. Stir and cook until the liquid level is one-tenth the volume of the meat. Then add the ketchup and mix well with the minced meat. Continue heating to let the liquid thicken until almost dry. Allow to cool.
3. Mix the black bean paste with the minced beef. It should form a thick paste. Add in glutinous rice flour and stir. Adjust the amount of glutinous rice flour until the beef and bean paste can form a very sticky but loosely cohesive ball in the palm.
4. When the consistency of the paste is good, form balls of the beef and bean paste with the palms. Then roll each ball in oat bran, press down to form a patty. The patties may not hold very well together at this point, but it is ok. Carefully place the patties on a baking pan. If a patty falls apart during the handling, just put it back together by hand.
5. Bake at 350F for about 20 minutes. Then flip the patties. The bottom side may be either still moist, or crispy and browned. Turn heat off and allow the patties to stay in the oven for 20 minutes. Then place them on a cooling rack. The patties will harden when cooled.