"Burger King"? Sorry, that title is taken

Everybody likes a good burger, right? Well, not vegetarians, but there are some really good alternatives for them as well. In fact I have a great recipe for veggie burgers, but that's for an other day.

So what's in a good burger meal? Bread, some vegetables, sauce, fries, dip sauce, something to drink... Pretty simple, but 1000 different ways to do it.

Let's start with the bread. You can buy ready-made burger bread in the store. Boring. Make your own bread. You can combine a batch with making some "regular" bread as well; then you'll not feel like you just wasted a whole good dough on just burger bread. Bread recipes can be found anywhere, so just look around a bit. One thing's for sure: your home baked bread will kick the ass of any bread you can buy.

Fries: getting a bit bored with ordinary fries, and I think there are way more interesting ways to prepare potatoes if you want something "snack style".
Start by cutting the potatoes into sticks, about twice as big as "regular" fries. I usually don't peel them, it makes the whole dish really bland and takes away a lot of flavor.
Boil them a bit to soften them up. About 10 minutes should do it, maybe a bit less. Then move them over to some suitable overware. Sprinkle with some olive oil and put in the middle of the oven at 250 degrees. Does your oven have a grill function? Even better.
Take the potatoes out after a while, add some salt and sprinkle on a bit more olive oil, and give them a good shake/turn. Put them back in the oven.
The key here is color. You want a nice golden brown thing going on. Then they're done! Add some more salt if needed, and some tarragon or rosemary is also a very good idea.

Dip sauce: I like yogurt based sauces but natural yogurt is often too watery for my taste, especially here in Portugal. The remedy is to filter out some of the liquid using a coffee filter.
Once you've gotten some of the liquid out, transfer to a bowl and add some salt, pepper and pressed garlic. Done!

The burger is the easy part. Good quality minced meat. Usually 100g/burger is enough; 150 is also nice if you have made the breads a bit bigger. Fry one side, turn them over, add some salt and pepper, and a slice of good cheese if you feel like it. Put on a lid in that case to make the cheese melt nicely.

Fry the bead a bit as well. I usually do it before frying the burgers, otherwise I just get stressed from trying to prepare everything at the same time.

Sauce: ketchup is obligatory, but you can make your own which will for sure taste better. Start with some tomato purée. Add a bit of honey, worcestershire sauce, tabasco and dijon mustard. Quantities to taste, but remember that the sauce should be TOMATO based.

Some onion (yellow or red), a slice of tomato and some rocket (ruccola) salad... Done.

Drinks: well, it all depends on your taste. If you're in Portugal, a Sagres Bohemia is a very good idea.

There you have it! Burger, "fries", drink. Feel free to compare this to any meal in any burger joint and let me know which one you preferred. And this one is definitely healthier.