Homemade burgers

Nothing beats a good home made burger. You can pick the best meat and spice it just the way you like it. The same goes for all the other components, when you make burgers at home, get the best ingredients your money can buy. Burgers are actually a very honest recipe, where all the individual ingredients should shine.

Another advantage with making burgers at home is that it is good family fun. I like to make a platter with all possible toppings and sauces, and everyone builds their own favorite burger.

For all you busy parents out there: you can make your patties in a day in advance and keep them in your fridge. You can even prepare all the veg, and store these in an air tight container or a ziplock bag. When you want to eat your burgers all you still need to do is fry the patties.

Burger

Burgers ( for 4 burgers)

  • Patties:
    • 500 gr. minced beef
    • 1 tsp HP sauce
    • Salt & pepper to taste
    • 1 tbsp oregano
    • Optional: 1 tsp of paprika
  • 4 burger buns
  • Slices of good cheese, cheddar or dutch cheese will do
  • Ketchup and mustard to taste
  • Onion, sliced in rings
  • Tomatoslices
  • Crunchy salad leaves
  1. Combine the pattie ingredients in a bowl and mix gently with your hands. As this is beef, I recommend tasting to test if your have seasoned it properly.
  2. Devide the mixture into 4 portions and mould these into burger patties. They should be less than 1 cm thick and match the size of your buns.
  3. Now you can let your burgers rest in the fridge for 15 minutes to 24 hours. I like to coat my patties with a thin layer of oil to prevent them sticking to the plate. I cover the plate with cling film.
  4. When your table is set and your side dishes are ready, fry your burgers in a pan or griddle on high heat. Thanks to the layer of oil, you don’t have to add oil to your pan.
  5. You can test how well done your burger is by pressing it in the centre, when it is more firm, it’s more cooked. I recommend experimenting a little here and find out what your favorite cooking time is.

We like having oven baked chips with our burgers.

Need a good vegetarian alternative? My beetroot burgers taste just as good on a burger bun.

Chicken fingers

ChicknChipsIn our family, we love making our own fast food. Our favorites include hamburgers and chicken fingers. This is an easy way to make the most tender chicken breast you will ever taste!

Chicken fingers (2-3 portions)

  • 2 chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch wide, long strips
  • Chicken marinade
    • 1,5 cups of buttermilk (or watered down yoghurt)
    • 1 tsp sweet paprika
    • 1 tsp oregano
    • salt & pepper to taste
    • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  •  Crust:
    • 200 grams bread crumbs
    • 1 tsp sweet paprika
    • 1 tsp oregano
    • 1 tbsp sea salt
    • 1 tsp pepper
  • 200 ml of sunflower oil for shallow frying
  • Dip:
    • 1 cup of sweet chili sauce
    • handful of koriander, finely chopped

ChickenFingers

  1. Cut your chicken, and mix with the marinade ingredients. Marinade the chicken for 30 minutes to 24 hours in the fridge.
  2. Combine ingredients for the crust.
  3. Prepare your chicken fingers:
    • Shake each finger off.
    • Place in your crust mix, you will find the buttermilk acts as the perfect glue for the crust.
  4. Warm up your oil. Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C (the perfect temperature for making chips in your oven!).
  5. In small batches, fry your chicken fingers, turn the chicken fingers after they have brown on one side. Take your fish fingers out of the oil, in a dish in the oven.
  6. Combine the ingredients for the dip.

Read more chicken inspiration, and the recipe for chips.