September 2016

22 Sep // Milkshake, boys, yard, strawberries

In the immortal words of George and Paul and John and Ringo, it’s been a long, cold, lonely Winter. But just as the Beatles (and Belle and Sebastian here) famously sang, here comes the sun, hopefully, and along with it my just about favourite thing about the warmer months: summer fruit. We’ve already got some new season Aussie strawberries teasing us in the supermarket, and I for one am excited.

Keeping with the theme, the clever people at Lewis Road have added strawberry to their repertoire of excellently creamy ice creams and milks. It’s a true strawberry flavour, and the ice cream in particular is a strawberries-and-cream delight. They asked me to come up with a cocktail using their new goodies, which is basically my dream job.

Keep reading!
Recipe inside!

Double strawberry hard shake

With Lewis Road Creamery Strawberry Milk and Strawberry ice cream

Makes 2

Ingredients

1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

2 generous scoops Lewis Road strawberry ice cream

75mls vodka

500mls Lewis Road strawberry milk

½ tsp good quality vanilla extract

30mls Aperol

150ml Lewis Road single cream, whipped

To garnish: freeze dried strawberries, fresh strawberries

Method

Blend all ingredients except cream in a blender until well combined.

Taste and adjust depending on your preferences:

  • You could increase the alcohol level slightly

  • You could add more ice cream for a thicker consistency

  • You could add more fresh strawberries for colour and flavour

Pour into a glass of you choice and garnish with a dollop of whipped cream, freeze dried strawberries, crushed slightly, and a fresh strawberry on the side.

This makes a fun cocktail for a sunny afternoon, or an excellent alternative to dessert.

 

// Posted by Delaney at 5:16 PM // Labels: milkshake, cocktails, lewis road, strawberry

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16 Sep // burger burger burger

Burgers have become such a massive thing. I mean they’ve always been popular, but it seems like now there are more burger joints than ever, and everyone has an opinion on what makes one good. What’s not to like though, right? Vegetables, meat or not, held together in a bun, dripping with condiments, and able to be picked up and eaten with your hands without judgement, they are close to being the perfect meal. Ever since I ate 17 burgers over 17 consecutive days back in 2011, I’ve had quite the affinity with this particular food group. And without, errr, wanting to describe myself as fussy, let’s just say I have high standards.

Some common mistakes when making burgers: too sloppy, bad quality and/or under-toasted buns, and my personal pet peeve: the careless addition of unnecessary ingredients. You know that saying less is more? That is very important when burgers are concerned.

Auckland burger joint Burger Burger has teamed up with Mainland and are encouraging everyone to enter their Burger by Design competition. You create a burger using a Mainland cheese, and the winner gets theirs on the menu at Burger Burger. Amazing!

Keep reading!
Recipe inside!

Creamy Blue Cheese Buffalo Burgers

Makes two

Crispy buffalo chicken:

2-4 free range, boneless, skinless chicken thighs (depending on size - I used one per person but could have gone up to two)

Neutral cooking oil

¼ cup flour

Salt and pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Buffalo hot sauce (I used Culley’s and it was amazing. You could try making it if you wanted to be fancy)

  1. Unfold the chicken thighs and give them a gentle bash (covered in glad wrap, then use a rolling pin) to flatten slightly.

  2. Heat 2cm neutral cooking oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan to a medium heat.

  3. In a medium bowl, place the flour, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper, and stir gently.

  4. Douse the chicken in the flour to ensure it is well coated.

  5. Using tongs, place the chicken in the oil and fry until crispy and golden. This should take about 4 minutes per side (depending on the thickness of the pieces). I flipped mine a couple of times to ensure each side was golden. Test a piece of chicken to check it is cooked through if you’re worried.

  6. Cook the chicken in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.

  7. Rest the chicken pieces for a couple of minutes in a sieve or on a wire cooling rack - this helps keep it crispy (whoever knew that paper towels were a bad idea?! I learned that and more about frying chicken from this article).

  8. Place the chicken pieces in a medium bowl and douse in buffalo sauce. Remove with tongs and add to the burger.

Blue cheese mayo:

60g Mainland Creamy Blue Cheese, crumbled

3 heaped tbsp mayonnaise

2 celery sticks, thinly sliced on the diagonal

Using a fork, mix the blue cheese into the mayo. Add the celery and mix well to combine.

 

To assemble the burgers:

2 burger buns of your choice, toasted or grilled (I used Wild Wheat hamburger buns - so good)

Iceberg lettuce

Chicken (above)

Blue cheese mayo (above)

 

Take your toasted buns, place iceberg lettuce on the bottom bun. On the lid, apply a thick layer of blue cheese mayo. Place the hot-sauced chicken piece (or pieces) on the lettuce, then place the lid on. ENJOY.  


If you’ve got a delicious idea for a burger, head into a Burger Burger store to fill out an entry, or simply check out the Burger Burger app here.

// Posted by Delaney at 5:14 PM

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