Proper Burgers

I think there’s something really rather exciting about making your own burgers. Certainly the first few times you make them you get a real sense of achievement – ‘wow, I made those; they weren’t shop-bought’ – and the great thing is that they’re so easy to make.

Use the best quality lean mince you can find for your burgers and you’ll be rewarded with succulence and fantastic flavour. Once you’ve got that good starting point anything you add is just going to enhance the flavour that’s already there. For these burgers I added to 500 grams of beef mince a big handful of flat leafed parsley which I snipped with scissors, a finely chopped red onion and a generous sprinkling of sea salt and black pepper.

Once you’ve mixed everything together you just need to firmly squeeze and mould the mixture into round patties. Some people add breadcrumbs or an egg to bind the mixture but I find I don’t need to so long as I firmly squeeze the mixture together when moulding it.

If your burgers end up quite fat like my ones cook them on a low to medium heat, quite slowly, so that they cook right the way through, although a little pink in the middle is fine if you like them rarer, providing your meat is fresh of course.

Once you make your own burgers you won’t want to buy ready made ones again. You can make them exactly how you want them and add into the mix whatever takes your fancy, minced garlic; chilli; cheese; mustard. And why not get the kids involved; they’ll love making, and of course eating, their own burgers and you’ll know exactly what’s gone into them – the burgers, and the kids, that is.