Burgers

A bad burger - like those tasteless, thin grey discs that come out of the freezer section of the supermarket - is a crime against food.  A decent home-made one, however, is quick, easy and delicious.

It's the last day before payday here, and there's no meat left in the freezer except a duck which I'd like to do something rather more special with than a mid-week supper.  There are beans, lentils and so on in the cupboard so I could have knocked together some sort of vegetarian chilli, but I had a couple of quid left in my pocket so I grabbed some mince as it's cheap and versatile.  I could have made chilli, lasagne, or a simple ragu - but we decided on burgers.

I know how to make them, but got quantities from the WeightWatchers website out of respect for my girlfriend's diet.  Their recipe has 500g (about 1lb) of mince for four people, so the 250g packet I'd bought would be fine for the two of us.  It looked like too much to me, but (unusually) I went against my instincts, followed the recipe and used the whole lot.

For the burgers, you will need mince, breadcrumbs, an onion, an egg white, some grated parmesan, and whatever herbs you fancy.  We went for basil and thyme today, a sprinkle of each from jars plus some shredded up leaves off the basil plant.  Spicy would be nice, with chilli flakes and spices, or how about lamb and rosemary?  Worcestershire sauce helps all round.

Anyway.  I make my breadcrumbs up in the miniature mincer, but you can buy them from the supermarket.  The mini mincer was a great buy though - it wasn't very expensive, it doesn't take up too much room and it sees quite a lot of use.  Breadcrumbs are optional in a burger, but I think they give them a nice texture.

I did the onions in it as well, that way you get a nice onion flavour to your burger without having actual lumps of onion.  If you're using a knife, chop your onion as finely as you can.

Salt and pepper to taste, then mix everything up in a bowl with your hands until all the ingredients are evenly distributed.

 I know some people are a bit funny about getting their hands dirty, especially where raw meat is concerned, but I absolutely love this part - there's no way you could do it using a spoon or anything else, you've just got to get your fingers into it.  Just watch your hygiene and wash your hands thoroughly afterwards!

Now shape the meat into burger patties.  They need to be quite firmly pressed together in your hands, or they'll fall apart while cooking.

It was at this point that I realised the WeightWatchers quantities were way off.  I've got quite big hands, but I could only just fit half of the mixture into my hands.  I managed it though, and made two enormous squeezed-together burger patties.

Grill (medium heat, about 15 minutes, turning halfway through) and serve.

As the burgers turned out so big we decided against chips or any other accompaniment and just had a little bit of salad on the side.  The burgers were so big they didn't even fit in the buns!

Taste verdict
Terrible presentation, but they tasted delicious.  Light texture, and the basil leaves gave little bursts of flavour.  We got decent quality rolls, so they held together and (once we'd eaten the excess with a fork) weren't too messy to eat.

Financial verdict
250g of beef mince - £1.70
Rolls - 35p each
Onion - 15p
Egg - 30p (I do insist on quality free-range eggs)
Salad - not much
Parmesan and breadcrumbs - pennies, from store (stale bread goes in the freezer for exactly this purpose)

£1.65 per portion, calculated for two, but honestly this would have made three or even four decent size burgers.  At that, it would have been less than a pound a portion, depending on what you decide to serve it with.

The Skinny
Make breadcrumbs in your mini mincer.
Chop onion likewise.
Grate some parmesan.
Separate an egg, keeping the white.
Choose herbs and/or spices.
Put everything in a large bowl and mix it up with your hands until everything is evenly distributed.
Make burger patties in your hands, making sure to squeeze well.
Grill under a medium heat for about 15 minutes, turning once half-way through (if your grill is one of those annoying ones that's either "hot" or "off" you'll just need to keep a close eye on them to make sure they cook through without burning).
Serve in a decent quality roll with whatever you fancy!

WeightWatchers ProPoints
10 (although I think they've got their quantities a bit wrong).