When I was in Sweden for two weeks around Christmas my mother and I cooked a lot. For Christmas Eve, dinner parties and dinners just for the family. We usually splurge when I’m home but on a regular Wednesday it’s sometimes nice with just regular (albeit still delicious!) food so one day we made our own burgers.

Sure, if you make the burger buns and all the condiments yourself it’s time consuming and a lot of effort, but if you just make the burgers it’s easier than making meatballs as all you need to add is plenty of salt and pepper. Instead of making buns we fried some nice bread in butter and put the burger on top with some cheddar, mummy’s homemade pickled gherkins, mayonnaise and ketchup.

Homemade burgers, serves 3

300-400 g ground brisket

plenty of salt

black pepper

butter and oil for frying

To serve:

3 slices bread fried in butter

cheddar

mayonnaise (preferably Hellman’s)

ketchup (preferably Heinz)

pickled gherkins

Mix the minced beef with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Shape into burgers with wet hands. Let a frying pan become really hot and add the butter and oil to it. Fry the burgers on high heat, a few minutes on each side. Lower the heat and fry the burgers until so rare/well done as you’d like them. Leave to rest a few minutes before serving. 

Spread some mayo onto the bread, add the burger, cheddar and pickled gherkins. Serve with ketchup.