Battered Wafer-Sheet Meat Cake in a Skillet

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make a wafer-sheet meat cake? Gather all the ingredients from the list. Fresh ground meat is best — it holds together more firmly. Meat that's been frozen and thawed tends to turn watery. Any shape of wafer sheet works: round, square, or rectangular. Some stores sell pre-portioned sheets you won't need to cut. Use refined vegetable oil.

2. Step 2:

   

   Peel, rinse, and pat the onion dry. Chop it finely. If your ground meat is quite firm, you can grind the onion in a meat grinder or blender instead — the onion juice will loosen the mixture a bit.

3. Step 3:

   

   I like to grind my own meat. This time I bought chilled chicken breast and ran it through the grinder. Pork, beef, or poultry all work for the filling, and a blend is great too. Add the chopped onion, salt, and ground black pepper to the meat and mix well.

4. Step 4:

   

   Spread a portion of the meat filling over the first wafer sheet (mine were 8.5 inches / 22 cm across) in a thin, even layer. It took about 2.5 heaping tablespoons of filling per sheet.

5. Step 5:

   

   Lay a second sheet on top and press it down gently with your hand. Spread on another thin layer of filling.

6. Step 6:

   

   Add a third sheet. Press it down lightly so it sits snugly against the filling. At this point I thought about stopping, worried the stack wouldn't cook through — but the cake was still pretty short and I had filling and sheets to spare, so I kept going.

7. Step 7:

   

   Spread meat filling over the third sheet in a thin layer with a spoon.

8. Step 8:

   

   Add and gently press down the fourth sheet. Spread on the rest of the filling — again about 2.5 tablespoons — in a thin, even layer.

9. Step 9:

   

   Top with a fifth sheet and press down lightly with your palm. I used 5 sheets from a 7-sheet package. Cut the assembled cake into serving-size pieces — I got 8.

10. Step 10:

    

    Now make the batter. Crack the medium eggs into a deep bowl. Add the water and a pinch of salt. Whisk with a fork until smooth. This much egg is just enough to coat all the pieces.

11. Step 11:

    

    Dip a piece into the batter. Use a fork to help — the sheets soften as they pick up moisture from the filling.

12. Step 12:

    

    About 5–7 minutes before frying, pour the oil into a skillet and set it over medium heat to warm up. Once the oil is hot, turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Add the battered pieces and cover with a lid. Fry for 4–5 minutes until golden on the first side. Cookware and stoves vary, so watch that they don't burn — you may need a little more or less time to get them browned.

13. Step 13:

    

    Flip the pieces over. Cover again and fry for another 4–5 minutes over the lowest heat.

14. Step 14:

    

    Once fried, set the pieces on paper towels to blot off any excess oil.

15. Step 15:

    

    Your pan-fried wafer-sheet meat cake is ready. Enjoy!