Build your burger

Fast food is available everywhere now, but often it lacks the flavour and quality you can find in home-cooked food. So why not take the time you spend going to your local burger place and waiting in line and instead build your own amazing burger, with "fixins"?

Instructions on how to eat it not included!

Serves: 4 as a main course, increase in proportions noted in ingredients for more people; serve with buns or toasted bread and whatever fixins you fancy. Note if you are craving cheeseburgers: Cheese takes a long while to melt if put on top of burgers in the frying pan so if you don’t have a grill to melt the cheese, cook the burgers a minute or 2 less, then put them on a clean, non-covered plate in the microwave for 30 seconds to melt the cheese

Time to prepare/cook: Approximately 15 to 20 minutes, 10 to prepare; 10 to cook the burgers

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Ingredients

• 400g lean minced beef

• I medium onion

• 2 teaspoons crushed garlic, or 2 garlic cloves chopped finely

• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley and/or basil

• 1 teaspoon of herbes de provence (dried)

• Optional: 50g grated parmesan (adds richness)

• Optional: 50g of breadcrumbs (tear up a big slice of slightly stale bread into tiny pieces) – I prefer it without breadcrumbs but see what you like

• Optional: 1 egg – this just helps bind the burgers together so they cook easily, but if you don’t have an egg, just use a small splash of oil to help the mixture stick together

• Olive oil for frying

• Fixins: Whatever you want to put on it from sliced tomatoes to fied onions, ketchup, pickles, cheese, bacon etc.

• Pots & pans needed: Mixing bowl, large frying pan, cup to beat egg in, plate to put prepared burgers on, sharp knife for chopping, spatulas for cooking

Method

• Chop the onion and garlic (if cloves not crushed) finely

• Beat the egg in a cup (if using an egg)

• Put all the ingredients except the egg into the mixing bowl and mix thoroughly

• Add the egg and mix in (or a small splash of oil if not using an egg)

• Now the messy bit 😊 Divide the mixture into 4 or 6 depending on how big you want your burgers and shape each into a ball and flatten to 1-2 cm thick, placing each on a plate ready for cooking

• Splash a little olive oil into the frying pan and warm it up (medium-high heat, 6 on a scale of 1 to 9)

• Cook the burgers for 3 to 4 minutes on each side, until they are as cooked as you want (that’s about medium, but cook a bit more if you want them better done although the French might cry)

• Stack your burger adding the fixins you like best

Burger fixins