Gee went to Brighton for the night for her best friends birthday, so the kids and I thought that we’d cook. Cool. I thought about an amazing lamb dish I saw on the F Word the other night, but thought better of it. It might work, it might not and the kids get nothing to do.
So we decided on burgers, big fat ones. Whenever I’ve made burgers in the past they’ve always fallen apart, but now, aha, I have found the secret…
So, we went for a walk in the rain, picked some wild garlic, got soaking wet, came home, dried off and got on.
The kids love this stuff, getting mucky, wet, picking some stuff to eat, although they ate all their leaves before we got back…
Anyway ere we go, easy peasy lemon squeazy.
- Minced beef, not too lean.
- Handful of wild garlic (finely chopped bulb garlic will do)
- Salt
- Pepper
- An egg
The trick I’ve found with burgers is – do not mix in a bowl. I’m not sure why, but they seem to stay together better, and it’s more fun.
So get the mince out and put on a larger chopping board and flatten out with your hands, fold it over and flatten again, do this for a few minutes.
Next, break the egg over the flattened mince, wishing that your chopping board had a gutter (you’ll see what I mean), you then fold the egg into the meat. When you have kids; the more mess the better!
The egg should be thoroughly folded in and the meat kind of sticky, add some black pepper, a pinch of salt.
Make some patties, we made big fat ones, Harvey’s got tiny hands but still managed to make the biggest. Just make big meat balls, if you want to add something to flavour, this is the time. I ripped up some of the wild garlic and folded it in with the meat and then reformed as a ball, Max added some Nando’s Piri Piri sauce (he likes it hot). If you must add onions (why?) cook them first and chop really fine. Really you should add afterwards in your bun…
Cook under a hot grill for 7-10 minutes each side (depends if you like it rare or not).
Serve with a bap (I love baps) some salad, some fat crispy chips, a sliver of cheese and sauces of your choice.
A top tip for slicing the cheese (I know most of you know this; I’m new you know), use your potato peeler, revelation, after nearly chopping off my fingers.
These burgers are great, but I have to say the star of this show were the chips, I’ve never made chips before and these far exceeded my expectations, and the kids. lol.