Home Made Burgers

Like all kids these days, my son loves burgers at McDonalds. In fact, the first logo he ever recognized was the McD one. We were taking him to his paediatrician for a checkup and as we drove past Basant Lok market, a large M in the characteristic font appeared atop one of the buildings. His head swiveled around in interest and he lisped in his 2 year old baby voice, “Mamma, I’m yoving it!” Ever since, one of the joys of his life has been the rare outing to a McDonalds outlet for a McAloo tikki burger, fries and fruit juice. There had come a time when the toy that came with the Happy Meal attracted him more than the meal itself, but since then he’s down to appreciating the food. In fact, that was one of the few meals we could count on him wolfing down without any trouble or need to resort to threats/ bribes.

He’s lately been invited out to quite a few playdates at friend’s homes and we’ve been unable to reciprocate until lately, what with the house renovation, my travel and of course, the baby. So when we finally called some of his friends over, lunch for them had to be a production number. He wanted to impress them by ordering a meal in from McDs, but I figured by the time the meal got here it’d taste like cardboard so I offered him home made McAloo Tikkis instead.

I have to admit, they’re among my favourite things to eat at McDs. Delicious, unlike soy burgers, I totally indulged in them during pregnancy. In fact, I'm surprised that McDonalds has not adopted these as part of their worldwide menu, because there are just so many vegetarians out there, never to mention Indian tourists, who would love a tasty vegetarian option.

I had a challenge on my hands, because the home made version had to taste authentically McDs. I must say, I never envisaged the day that I’d be trying to emulate a mass-produced fast food item in my kitchen, but here I was, flipping burgers like a pro!

The boys loved these and the frozen fries we had freshly fried (that sounds like something out of Dr Seuss’s Oh Say Can You Say, Doesn’t it?) and had a gala time at the playdate. They turned out so well A was asking for seconds, so I’m planning to make them a monthly treat.

Ingredients (for 4 burgers):
Potatoes – 1 per person if the size of a cricket ball, 1.5 if smaller
Onions – 2, finely chopped
Shelled Peas – half cup
Salt to taste
I cup breadcrumbs
4 hamburger buns, cut in half
8 lettuce leaves, washed and dried
7-8 slices of tomato
7-8 slices of onion
Fun Foods Sandwich spread (basically Thousand Island dressing)
Salted butter
Cheese slices if you want
2-3 tbsp vegetable oil
Boil the potatoes in salt water, peel them and mash them until pasty. Boil the peas. Add the peas, the chopped onions and salt to the potatoes and shape into circles that just fit into your palm.Roll them in the breadcrumbs. Flatten them into 1 inch thick disks.
In a frying pan, add the oil. When hot, shallow fry the potato burgers until lightly browned on all sides. Spoon up the oil onto the sides of the burgers while frying so the sides get nice and crisp too.
In another frying pan, add a knob of butter and lightly toast the cut sides of the burger buns until browned and crisp.
Assemble the burgers by applying a layer of the Fun foods spread on the cut side of the bottom half of the burger bun. Top with a lettuce leaf, add tomato slices until the bun is covered, then add the potato burger. Top the potato burger with another lettuce leaf and the onion slices. Slather the cut side of the top half of the burger bun with more Fun Foods spread and cover your burger. Add cheese slices wherever you want. Serve hot, with ketchup on the side.