My husband is possibly the biggest burger fan known to man. It’s his go-to dish whenever we go out to eat, and woe betide any pub or restaurant that doesn’t live up to his exacting standards. He regularly updates his top-five list, and is still religiously searching for his best ever burger. So I take great satisfaction from the fact he admits my own homemade burgers are pretty hard to beat. A bit of fine tuning and few hidden ingredients have made these very simple yet incredibly tasty, and a regular Friday night treat in our household. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

Makes 6-8 burgers

Ingredients

1 small-medium onion.

1 clove garlic

Handful of sweet gherkins

500g beef mince

1 small egg, beaten

2 tsp mixed herbs

Ketchup

American mustard

Salt and Pepper

Method

Preheat the grill to high

Put the onion and garlic into a food processor and whizz until finely chopped. Add the gherkins and pulse a few times. Tip the mix into a bowl and add the mince, egg, and herbs. Add a good squirt of ketchup and a good squirt of American mustard and season well with salt and pepper.

Form the burgers into patties, squeezing out as much moisture as possible (the mix is rather wet).

Put a piece of foil over the top of the rack on your grill pan and put the burgers on top (they are quite delicate and may collapse through the grill if you don’t use the foil).

Grill for around 15 minutes, turning half way through.

If you like a cheeseburger, add a slice of cheddar or monteray jack to the top of the burgers for the last minute of grilling.

Serve as you wish – the husband likes his fully loaded with cheese, more gherkins, bun, and chips, where as I prefer to go low carb, with plenty of salad and a corn on the cob on the side.