Although I am partial to a Big Mac now and again, I usually make my own beef burgers, even though my butcher makes really good ones – just minced beef and seasoning, so he says, and definitely no horsemeat!

Can you call it a burger if it doesn’t have a bun? Well, I can. And do burgers have to be made with beef? I don’t think so.

Bombay burgers made with minced chicken and flavoured with curry (mild or hot, whichever suits), perched on small naan flatbreads and anointed with mango chutney-flavoured mayo are certainly different and very good.

Naan bread is available from most supermarkets, either small or large, plain or flavoured; we like the garlic and coriander ones.

First, there were burgers, then there were sliders. When we were visiting the US regularly back in the 1980s and 1990s, we occasionally went to a bar/grill that served what they called ‘little bitty burgers’ for a dollar each, and you could order just one with a drink or as many as you liked for a meal.

I think, too, that Burger King were serving something similar which, if I recall correctly, were called burger shots.

How or when they morphed into sliders, I haven’t a clue, but that now seems to be the name for mini-burgers, which like a lot of things that originated in the US, eventually drifted across the Atlantic.

My recipe, using a mixture of Maltese sausage and regular pork sausages, makes tasty sliders and great party food. Children love them and they go down well with the grown-ups too; so make lots as they disappear fast. Most supermarket bakery counters sell bags of mini-burger buns.

Gyros, the Greek equivalent of Turkish doner, are pieces of meat packed on to a large vertical spit which are grilled and then carved off and served in pitta bread, but as I don’t think many of us have that sort of equipment in our kitchens, they are more easily made into burgers with minced meat. Gyros are usually made with pork, but I make mine with minced lamb, served Greek-style in pitta bread, with cucumber tzatziki and a Greek salad.

I don’t use bread of any sort with my pork burgers. I add lots of chilli, ginger and lime and serve them with a peanut sauce and either rice or noodles. Probably not a real burger, but they’re spicy and delicious all the same.

Bombay burgers with mango mayo

Serves 6

Sunflower oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp curry paste, hot or mild according to taste
600g minced chicken
4 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp roughly chopped fresh coriander
½ tsp salt
Pinch sugar
3 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp mango chutney
6 small naan breads or pitta pockets
Iceberg lettuce leaves and tomato slices to serve

Heat a tablespoon of oil and fry the onion until soft. Stir in the curry paste and three tablespoons of water and fry for two minutes more.

Put the chicken and breadcrumbs into a bowl. Add the onion, ginger, cumin, ground coriander, fresh coriander, half a teaspoon of salt and a pinch of sugar and mix it all together well.

Turn the mixture out and, with wet hands, shape it into six burgers about 1cm thick. Chill until ready to cook.

Mix the mayonnaise with the mango chutney and chill until ready to serve.

Brush the burgers with oil and either grill, fry or barbecue them for about eight minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Warm the naan breads in the toaster and top with lettuce, then add the burgers, some slices of tomato and a spoonful of the mango mayo.

Pork burgers with peanut sauce

Serves 4

500g minced pork
4 large spring onions, white part only, finely chopped
4 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves
1 lime
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
Salt and pepper
Small (165ml) can coconut milk
4 tbsp smooth peanut butter
small onion, grated
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

Put the pork, spring onions, breadcrumbs, garlic and ginger into a large bowl. Add the coriander, the grated zest of the lime and one tablespoon of the juice, and all but one teaspoon of the chilli.

Season with salt and pepper and mix everything together well, then shape the mixture into four fat burgers. Put them on a plate and chill until ready to cook. In a small pan, whisk together the coconut milk, peanut butter, onion, soy sauce, brown sugar and the rest of the chilli plus any remaining lime juice.

Fry or barbecue the burgers for about six to eight minutes on each side or until cooked through, turning from time to time. While the burgers are cooking, bring the sauce to the boil, then pour it into a serving bowl.

Divide the burgers between four warm plates and serve with noodles or rice and the sauce.

Sausage sliders

Makes about 20 sliders

400g Maltese sausages
8 small pork sausages
4 tbsp dried breadcrumbs
1 small onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Salt and pepper
4 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp olive oil
Bag of mini-burger buns
2 or 3 large pickled gherkins, sliced

Remove and discard all the sausage skins and put the meat in a bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, onion, garlic and some salt and pepper to the meat and knead it all together well. With wet hands, roll the mixture into largish meatball-sized pieces, then flatten the balls into burger shapes. Put them on to a large plate and chill until ready to cook. Mix the mayo with the tomato paste and chill that too.

When ready to cook, heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the burgers over medium heat for about eight to 10 minutes, turning from time to time until cooked through.

Serve the burgers in the split buns and top with a small dollop of the tomato mayo and some slices of pickle. Push a cocktail stick through each filled burger to help keep them together.

Greek gyros with tzatziki

Serves 4

500g minced lamb
1 onion, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground coriander
Pinch cinnamon
Salt and ground black pepper
10cm piece hothouse cucumber
Small carton plain Greek yoghurt
½ tsp sugar
4 pitta breads
Lettuce leaves and Greek salad to serve

Put the lamb into a bowl together with the onion and garlic. Add a tablespoon of mint, the thyme, oregano, coriander and cinnamon and season well with salt and a good grind of black pepper.

Using your hands, knead it all together, then divide the mixture into four and shape into flat burgers. Put them on a plate and chill until ready to cook.

Cut the cucumber in half lengthways and scrape out all the seeds, then chop the cucumber quite finely and put it into a small bowl.

Stir in the yoghurt, the rest of the mint and the sugar and season well with ground black pepper. Chill until ready to serve.

Fry, grill or barbecue the burgers for about six minutes on each side, or until done to your liking. Warm and split the pitta breads, tuck a lettuce leaf into each one, add the burgers and serve with the tzatziki and a Greek salad.

For this salad, toss together chunks of tomato and cucumber, slices of red onion, a handful of pitted black olives and cubes of either feta or kefalotiri cheese. Spoon over a dressing made with three tablespoons of olive oil, a tablespoon of wine vinegar, a tablespoon of honey and some seasoning.