Minted Lamb Burgers

We've always made our own burgers, and have done for as long as I can remember - it's a real traditional American thing. Twenty-odd years ago, when my family first moved from Britain to the States, my dad was sent down to the supermarket to buy some burgers for a barbecue we were planning. He was quickly convinced - via the medium of lynch mob - that Americans make their own burgers. Good old American meat. Good old American onions. Good old American herbs and spices. Two decades and several hundred patties later, you still can't beat burger night.

My burgers all pretty much start with an onion and a good chunk of garlic. Anything goes after that. I'm also putting together a tomatoey/herby/yoghurty chutney which I'm sort of making up as I go along.

I first realised that I was more than a little bit obsessed with cooking a few years ago, when my sister asked me what I wanted for Christmas. 'A Jamie Oliver Mezzaluna' - I said. It's things like that which make me cool. Still, I've got a Jamie Oliver Mezzaluna and that's the important thing.

Lamb mince, red onion, garlic, teaspoon of cumin, green chili, mint, salt and pepper.

My problem with making burgers is that I often try to show off and feed somebody a burger the size of their head. I resisted the urge to split the mix down the middle and instead made three - one for lunch tomorrow perhaps.

Homemade chips are a treat as well. Cut chunky, par-boil for just a few minutes, toss in pre-heated oil with some bashed-up cloves of garlic, rosemary and sea salt - cook in a hot oven, 40 minutes or so.

I put this photo in partly to show what I put in the chutney (tomato, red onion, mint and coriander, lemon, cumin and yoghurt), but mostly because if you blur your eyes it looks a bit like the Ivory Coast flag. Might annoy Didier Drogba with that on Twitter later...

And that's that - job done. I served it in some warm focaccia bread (M&S, obviously) with a slice of cucumber for a bit more veg, and a dollop of the chutney. Can't go wrong. All in all, today was an enjoyable day off work. Let's do it all again tomorrow.