Royale with(out) cheese

Hamburgers are one of life's simple pleasures, no? When they're good, I mean. Not McDonald's standard. Not supermarket grade, processed-meat pattie standard. No. I mean burgers made using meat of reasonable quality (I'm no snob--it need not be wagyu or organic, grass-fed whatever) and nice bread and toppings.

Sadly, good burgers are hard to find. I'm happy with Grill'd's offerings. And, too, I have a soft spot for The Napier's infamous Bogan Burger (beef, chicken, bacon, egg, beetroot and a hash brown on a pide bun with, too, generous helpings of chips and a green leaf salad). Still, I make them at home sometimes and was happy to see that Larousse had a recipe one offer. It also suggested--and this is further proof of how civilised the French are--that I could load up my burger with either mushrooms or olives. I opted for both.

13. Hamburgers

The patties are a mixture of minced beef (I used King Island beef, as it's readily avaliable, reasonably priced and, even from supermarkets, okay quality), diced onion, chopped parsley, salt, pepper and a single egg (the recipe called for two eggs per 400 grams of meat but from experience I knew this would be excessive). They are fried over a high flame in the same pan as some chopped onion, which later joins the pattie in the burger bun as a garnish.

As mentioned earlier, the recipe suggests all manner of garnishes. I liked the sound of olives and mushrooms.


14. Anna potatoes

You can't seriously consider burgers without potatoes but, really, I wasn't in the mood for fucking around with a saucepan full of oil. No. And too, I've had a few days without any dairy fat, so I think it's time. The recipe for Anna potatoes is a bit gratin. You take some thin slices of potato, brush them all over with melted butter, layer them in a sexy fashion and bake them--covered--for just shy of half a hour at 200 degrees. You then lift the lid and cook them for a further half hour. You could easily, I suppose, sex these up with garlic and rosemary and thyme. In fact, unless you're in bad shape and require the sort of comfort that only soft, buttery potatoes can provide--and these are soothing--I'd recommend doing something like that.