Emergency Burgers

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I've named these as such because they can be produced in 45 minutes from scratch, using a frozen burger and rolls, plus kitchen staple ingredients. There's nothing especially clever about them, but it's taken me years of fine-tuning to perfect the recipe, so I thought I'd share it here!

Ingredients (makes 2)

Use organic if available - complain if not!

• 1 large (170g) beefburger, frozen (see note)
• 2 multi-seeded wholemeal rolls, halved and frozen (see note)
• 1 small tomato, sliced
• 1 small onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tsp mayonnaise
• 2 tsp piccalilli
• Salt

Note: burgers should be frozen on the day of purchase (my favourites are made from 30-day aged Hereford beef, and come in packs of 2 (340g)). Rolls should be halved, then left cut-side-up for an hour before re-assembling and freezing. This dries them slightly, so they'll separate easily straight from the freezer.

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, Gas Mark 5. Place the frozen burger, on a roasting rack, on the middle shelf of the oven. After 15 minutes, place the 4 frozen half-rolls, cut-side-up, on a heatproof plate on the floor of the oven. After a further 10 minutes, move the plate up to a shelf below the burger, and flip the latter. After another 5 minutes, take the rolls out of the oven (they should be fully thawed and slightly toasted) and spread the mayonnaise evenly over the top halves, and the piccalilli over the bottom halves. Arrange the tomato on the mayonnaise and the onion on the piccalilli, sprinkle on a little salt, and return to the oven.

After another 5 minutes, stand the burger on its side and, holding it steady with a fork, use a sharp knife to cut it into 2 halves, like the rolls. Place these cut-side-up back on the roasting rack, and return to the oven for a further 10 minutes. Check that the burger slices are fully cooked, with no traces of pink remaining, then place them, cut-side-down, over the onions, and flip the tops on - if you do this quickly then the tomatoes will stay in place!

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