Fast Food #1: Burgers and Buns

Image of burger in a bun

I like the idea of fast food but often I don’t like what I get served in burger bars/fish and chip shops/kebab shops/those weird ones where they sell a bit of everything and it all tastes vile.

So I thought it’d be fun to do an occasional series making similar stuff at home – except edible.

Ok, you can’t eat it at the bus stop on the way home from a night out in the pub, but you’re more likely to survive the experience.

So here’s the first one – home-made burgers and buns.

We went the whole hog – or steer – and ate them with our home-made sweetcorn relish, spicy tomato ketchup and sweet pickled cucumbers.

Image of sweetcorn relish, pickled cucumber and spicy tomato ketchup

But as not everyone has a fanatical gardener for a husband – or even a garden 0r time to muck about making pickles –  I respectfully submit that you eat them any darned way you please.

Home-Made Beef Burgers

  • Servings: 6 fat juicy burgers
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Image of beef patties

Ingredients:

500g good quality lean steak mince

1 smallish onion, peeled and grated

1 fat clove of garlic, peeled and crushed

1 medium-hot chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 heaped tbsp of finely chopped parsley

1 heaped tbsp of dry breadcrumbs or porridge oats

About half a beaten egg

A good grinding of salt and black pepper

Oil for frying

Method:

Image of minced beef with onions and chilli

Tip the mince into a bowl, breaking it up with your fingers if it’s stuck together.

Tip the remaining ingredients into the bowl and mix well. The breadcrumbs/oats and scrap of beaten egg are optional but help bind it all together.

Season well and form into burgers the size you like. I got six fat patties out of my mix. If you have time, place them into the fridge to firm up.

Image of burger in a bun

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the burgers until browned on both sides. Timings depend on how fat your burger is and how rare you like your meat.

While they’re resting, split your bread rolls and lightly toast the cut halves.

Plonk the burger in your bun and add your choice of pickles/salad/ketchup.

NB: if you want a cheeseburger, place a slice of cheese on each patty and pop under a hot grill for a minute or so before placing in the buns.

For the record, I wasn’t aiming to build a trendy tower – they’re a burger to eat. It just turned out that way because the rolls rose so high.

Home-Made Burger Buns 

Image of home-made bread rolls

It’d be a bit daft for me to give a recipe here because I made the dough in a bread machine. You may have a different machine, you may want to go down the make-them-from-scratch route or you may prefer to just buy them in.

I glazed mine with a bit of beaten egg and sprinkled them with poppy seeds and sesame seeds. They looked more like brioche than baps, but hey, who cares? They tasted good, they cost pennies and there were enough to eat for breakfast the next morning.

6 thoughts on “Fast Food #1: Burgers and Buns

  1. Pingback: Fast Food #3: Kebabs | Mrs Portly's Kitchen

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