The Perfect Hamburger

Well I was going to do a vegetarian tapas thing this week. Honestly, I promise I was. But I have to work part of the Bank Holiday weekend so we have decided to treat ourselves to tapas out on Sunday night to make up for it. And although I seem to be craving a holiday in Spain (I've never been) tapas two nights running seemed excessive. So another day I will do a veggie extravaganza and make my own tortilla and buy manchego and make a couple of lovely salads etc.

I decided to go to the other extreme and make burgers. This wasn't supposed to be a fancy dinner, just a Friday night tea, so you might find it all a bit less hard work than usual. 

NB. There seems to be an unintentional American theme in these last two posts, I'm not sure why.

Burgers:

I have an enduring memory of reading “The Perfect Hamburger” by Alexander McCall Smith with my mum when I was wee. I loved it, and I asked my mum if we could make the perfect hamburger. My mum's a primary school teacher, and it turns out when she read this book to her class, they'd all made burgers afterwards. She had the mince ready, that night we made our own burgers for tea. Anyway, enough reminiscing, in all seriousness my burger recipe today will not differ wildly from the one I made with my mum when I was about seven. Two things I have decided to add are: some very finely chopped streaky bacon to give it an extra layer of fat and salt (healthy) and some finely chopped fried onion to add a bit of sweetness.

First, shove on your oven to preheat for your wedges. They'll take half an hour, so they want to be in the oven before you put your burgers on.

Finely chop and fry on a low heat in a little butter to soften. Let it cool a bit. Take a load of mince (I had about 400g for three big meaty burgers... too much really) add the onion, some very finely chopped unsmoked streaky bacon (I had three rashers) and an egg. Mix it up with plenty pepper. If it's a bit wet add some breadcrumbs. (Take the end bit of your normal loaf that never gets eaten, blitz in food processor, you've got nice fresh breadcrumbs) I've read recipes that say absolutely no to the egg, but it helps it stick together. And my mum always added egg. It doesn't taste of egg, so I have no problem with it. Anyway, mix it all together with your hands, or if you don't like touching raw meat a spoon, but it makes life much more difficult.

Heat up your griddle pan to a medium-high heat. Shape them into really fat burger shapes, as you want them to be quite thick so they don't dry out. Rub some oil on the outside of them, and salt the outside. And griddle. Put them on then turn down immediately to a medium heat, and don't touch them for at least five minutes. Turn them as little as possible, and cook for about 7-10 minutes on each side, depending on the size of your burger. You want a nice crust on the outside (that's where the flavour is). If you want to put cheese on, put it on when you've just flipped them. You might need to stick it under the grill to melt it properly for the last thirty seconds. 

Put it aside to rest for a few minutes while you shove your rolls on the griddle to soak up any remaining juices and get a bit crispy.

Potato Wedges:

You see this is almost a healthy meal, as we're not having chips. It feels a bit ridiculous putting a recipe up for potato wedges. (Cut potatoes into wedges, add stuff you like, shove in oven) Here goes anyway.

Cut potatoes into wedges. Toss in sunflower/vegetable oil (don't bother with nice fancy olive oil, there's not much point. Season really generously, and shake over some paprika and chilli flakes. Shove in oven at 180 degrees for about half an hour, or until cooked. It depends how fat your wedges are.

If you want to speed this process up, you can parboil the wedges, then add the oil and seasoning and whatnot, then shove in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, or as long as it takes to cook a frozen pizza. (ahem.) 

Serve the whole thing with salad, and top with anything you like, I like mustard and ketchup. Joe hates mustard. Add gherkins if you're a fan of things that are pickled, etc. The home made coleslaw from last week's post would, of course, have been brilliant with this. (see here: http://tinyurl.com/ck2mahj) but I'd done that. Plus we struggled to eat an entire cabbage worth of the stuff this week, so I've gone and bought coleslaw from the shop.

It's not fancy, but it is lovely. In all the meals I've cooked and blogged, Joe seemed the most delighted with this one. Seriously.

A picture so good I put it in twice (didn't take many pictures)

In other news: I have just read an article which says that British asparagus season is delayed. I'm gutted. The shops are still full of Peruvian stuff. I'm hoping this will change soon as I love asparagus. Click on the link to the right for some of last year's asparagus season cooking. Maybe when I'm doing my veggie tapas feast I'll do something with asparagus too...