My Quarter Pounder !

This is the burger that JF talked about in her Mother's Day 'certificate' for me.

It's been a long time since we last had home-made burger. Reason ? My tight baking schedule. We've been having a lot of simple vege & meat/seafood kind of meals lately.

Last Thursday, when I told hubby that I'm not cooking lunch, he asked if it was chicken rice again ? So feeling rather guilty about it, I decided I could cook something. I used to take my own sweet time when it comes to food preparation & cooking. However, I can whip up something really fast nowadays. I guess I've been 'trained' by myself, juggling my time between baking & cooking.

As usual, from the deep freezer, I've got minced beef, so burger came to my mind. There's cabbage, carrot, cheese slices, mayonnaise, tomatoes & gherkins in the fridge, breadcrumbs in my pantry. I just had to run out to get a bag of burger buns.

My version of burger patties :

500g Minced beef
1 Onion, finely chopped
1 Egg
2 Gherkins, chopped *
1/4 Cup Breadcrumbs
2 Tbsp Tomato ketchup
1 tsp Liquid smoke *
1 tsp Dried oregano
salt & pepper to taste

Place all ingredients in a large bowl & mix till well combined, cover & set aside in the fridge.
Divide beef mixture into portion, we had 125g each & the girls had a 60g portion. Heat some oil in a frying pan, cook patties till browned on each side.

To assemble, split a burger bun, toast it & spread some butter on it. Place tomato slices, onion rings, burger patty, cheese slice on one half of the bun, top it with the other half & serve. Add a sunny side-up to the burger if you want.

I've also included a home-made coleslaw to go with the burger.

* I've always like the smokey flavour in my meats so I make sure I add some liquid smoke each time I make burger patties or meatballs. Hubby likes his gherkins chopped & mixed into the minced beef mixture as he likes the sweet, sourish crunch of it in his burger.