Bearnaise, Blue Cheese and Red Onion Burgers

Serves	4
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Lunch, Main Dish, Side Dish, Snack
Misc	Child Friendly, Pre-preparable, Serve Hot
Occasion	Barbecue, Birthday Party, Casual Party, Halloween
Region	French
By author	Karen S Burns-Booth

A home-made burger with three of my favourite French elements included in the ingredients, Bearnaise sauce, French blue cheese and sliced red onions! I made these for a quick lunch on Bastille Day - 14th July, hence the name! I used our excellent local Charolaise beef, a salt marsh beef which is superb, with a good fat to muscle ratio, and a slight tang of herbs and salt. If you want to cut down on the carbs, just have this burger "Naked" without the bun! Likewise for low fat - omit the Bearnaise sauce and chop some fresh tarragon up and mix it with the minced/ground beef. I am not a great lover of commercial burgers, but I do like home-made burgers - and these are now a firm favourite with all my family & friends! This recipe is for 4 people - just increase the ingredients for more people.

Ingredients

450g good quality minced beef
cornichons, sliced
tomatoes, sliced
lettuce, washed and shredded
1/2 red onion, peeled and sliced into rings
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons bearnaise sauce
4 hamburger buns or 4 pieces French bread, halved
100g French blue cheese
salt and pepper (to taste)

Note

This recipe is for 4 people - just increase the ingredients for a crowd.

Directions

Step 1	Heat/light up your barbeque and allow the flames to die down.
Step 2	Season the beef with pepper, but NO salt - salt draws out the juices and toughens the meat! (You can add salt if you need it at the end)
Step 3	With damp hands - shape the minced beef into four patties/burgers.
Step 4	Cook the burgers to your liking - remember to place your blue cheese on top of the burgers to melt just before serving; then toast the burger buns or French bread.
Step 5	Assemble your burger like so: bottom bun: lettuce, tomatoes, Bearnaise sauce and burger with melted blue cheese. Spread the Dijon mustard on the top bun, then place the onions and cornichons on top of the burger, with an extra dollop of Bearnaise sauce if you wish - then add the top bun.
Step 6	If making these for a crowd - have all the condiments and salad ingredients handy and on a platter - and people can help themselves, as soon as the burgers are cooked.
Step 7	You could fry your onion - but I like the taste of raw red onion in these burgers!