Little Northern Soul: Recipe: bookish burgers

For dinner last week the other half and I indulged in some mid-week burgers. They're fairly simple to make but can be just as delicious as some of the burgers you can get at high street restaurants if you take the time with the little extras. I thought I'd share with you our recipe.

The mince

First of all, I shaped the mince into burger patties. I put the mince in the bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper, a finely chopped red chilli. I then mixed it together with my hands. Some recipes tell you to add some oil or even an egg to the mixture to keep it bound together, but I found if you kneed together well enough at this stage you don't need those extras.

Once the mince was mixed together, I formed it into three patties (I have a constantly hungry OH so one for me, two for him!) and popped them on the tray while I heated some oil into the griddle pan.

Potatoes

I made some wedges to go with them. I opted for sweet potatoe and the OH had normal potatoes. To make the wedges I peeled the sweet potatoe skin off (but left the others with skin on them) and then chopped into wedges. I sprayed an oven tray with 1 cal spray, put on the wedges and then sprayed the top of the wedges again with the oil. Then they are ready for the oven - about 25 mins at 190 degrees.

Onions

To make the burgers a bit more special, we decided to add some fried onions and cheese on top.

To make the onions, I put a few spoons of oil in the bottom of a pan and added in the chopped onions when the oil was hot. I stirred for a few moments before turning up the heat and adding a pinch of sugar and a glug of balsamic vinegar. Carry on cooking at a high temperature for a minute or so with the ingredients, then turn the heat down low and let the onions sweat it out while you cook the burgers.

Then start on the burgers. Make sure the griddle pan is really hot before putting the burgers on. Cook them on a medium heat for a few minutes each side until they're cooked how you like them.

I chopped up some cheddar cheese and once the burgers were cooked, placed it on top of the patties ready for the oven. When the wedges are almost done, put the burgers in the oven to melt the cheese - this should only take a few minutes.