An Islay Kitchen: Double BBQ Cheese Burgers with Bacon

My first recipe, how exciting!

When cooped up in the long winter months, with the wind and the rain battering at the windows I like cooking things that remind me of Summer. I based this recipe off a wonderful canadian friend of mine, Captain Barbecue. I've taken how I think she did things and put my own spin on it. These burgers are juicy, full of flavour and so easy! Great on the grill or the BBQ. This recipe serves 4 people and makes 8 small-ish patties.

Ingredients:

For the Burgers
460g Good quality Beef mince
1 small onion
1 tbsp BBQ sauce plus extra for glazing
A pinch of salt
1tsp mixed herbs

Extras
4 rolls
4 rashes of smoked back bacon
Cheese (whatever kind you fancy I use a mixture of Cheddar and Red Leicester)
Salad to Garnish (I didn't have any this evening as the boat didn't come in yesterday so there was none in the shops)

Method:

1. Finley dice the onion and place in a large mixing bowl. Add the minced beef, BBQ sauce, salt and mixed herbs. Mix with your hands until well combined.

This is the sauce I used because it's my favourite and really yummy. You can use any you like :)

one finely diced onion courtesy of my lovely boyfriend

Then just kinda smush it all together

2. Now to form make the burgers. The best thing for this is a burger press, you can pick them up for about a fiver on the inerwebs. I'm using my mum's which was her mum's before that, practically an antique. You can just form them in your hands but I can't promise how well they'll stick together. Divide the mixture into four and then each of those into two. Form your burgers and leave to rest in the fridge for about half an hour.

Burger Press

Burger meat pre squash

Burgers ready for Grilling

3. If it was sunny outside I would Barbecue these, however I live in the west of Scotland so even in the summer this is a rare occurrence. What I do when I can't cook alfresco is firstly grill the burgers on the highest setting, searing the outside. Baste each Burger with a little more BBQ sauce when brown turn over and repeat. When brown n both sides finish them in the oven on a moderate heat until cooked through.