Lady Lunchalot

I can clearly remember the first hamburger that really blew me away. I was about seven years old and we were visiting my Uncle Ross who lived in the Blue Mountains outside Sydney. We stopped at a local burger takeaway to take some lunch back to my uncle’s place, and I ended up with a beautiful fresh hamburger that was bigger than my head.

The juicy patty was piping hot and the lettuce was crisp. The bun was as soft as a pillow and the beetroot juice trickled in a fuchsia stream down my arm and stained my t-shirt. I ate every bite of that mammoth burger (which was no small task for a seven year old girl) and kept on talking about it all the way back to Sydney.

Homemade hamburgers were a relatively regular feature on our family menu after that.

For some reason yesterday I was remembering this burger, and thinking about the myriad of gourmet burger joints that are now (almost) as ubiquitous as, well, McDonalds outlets. It’s great that kids now have burger options other than the Big Mac. A fresh home-made hamburger is actually a very healthy nutritious meal. You’ve got meat, cheese and fresh raw vegetables all packaged together in a tasty bun. That’s four of the five food groups covered in one hit!

So last night I decided to relive that first burger moment and cook up a few burgers for dinner.

Patty

• Leanish mince meat (known as ground beef to our North American friends)
• A handful of breadcrumbs
• Tomato paste
• A clove or two of garlic
• Half a finely chopped sauteed onion
• A light sprinkle of cumin
• Half a zucchini, grated
• Half a carrot, grated
• An egg

Mix it all together with your hands and shape into patties. I like to sautee the onion instead of using it raw as it enables the onion to caramelise a tad and adds an extra level of sweetness to the burger. The grated veggies also add some moisture to the patty without being too fatty.

On the subject of fatty patties, I quite like a little grease in my burger, however my waistline doesn’t. If I was one of those waifish women who could eat whatever I wanted, I would not use lean beef in my patty. But seeing as every calorie packs a brutal punch with me, I sacrifice a bit of juiciness and use diet mince instead.

Pop onto a hot plate or frying pan with some thickly sliced onions. I also sliced the leftover zucchini and put that on the grill too.

Toast some soft bread rolls under the grill. I spread some of my quince and apple chutney on the base. I would also generally use a good whole egg mayo or avocado, but once again, my hips are not allowing it right now. Layer the patty with cheese (next to the patty so it melts), thick slices of tomato, onions, iceberg lettuce (for extra crunch) and fresh grated beetroot (much better than the tinned stuff). Yes, Australians love beetroot on our hamburgers even though the rest of the world thinks it’s kind of strange. Personally, I think a hamburger is not worth looking at unless it contains beetroot.

I would have also fried up an egg but I couldn’t be bothered dirtying a frying pan, and I already had to dislocate my jaw to bite through this formidable tower o’ burger anyway.