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Dan’s Delish Buffalo Wings

I love footy, this should be no secret to you. If you tune in to the Drive Home, you’ll be well aware, lol. But when it’s more than just a game and becomes an event, let’s say Origin, a Grand Final or Superbowl and you’ve got multiple people watching, getting hungry maybe needing things to throw at that one guy whose team is beating everyone elses. Here it is, wings and dip. I always serve this with veggie sticks or sweet potato fries, you gotta balance it out, because that chicken isn’t really health food, to be honest. It’s a treat. So why not cook up some of my Buffalo Wings for your next party.

Prep Time: 45-60 min     
Serves: However many people it takes to eat a kilo of wings, I say 4 if it’s a footy snack.
Ingredients
Ranch:
1/2 cup mayo
300ml sour cream
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp dry dill
1 tsp each of garlic powder, onion powder and coriander seed powder
Salt and white pepper to taste

Wings:
1L of vegetable oil
1 kg chicken wings
3/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp each of paprika, garlic powder, coriander seed powder and salt.
1/4 tsp cayenne 

Buffalo Sauce:
2/3 cup Franks Red Hot
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter
1/3 Cup white vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt to taste

Serve up with some Sweet Potato Fries, and your favourite raw veggies to dip.

How to:
First thing, if you buy the wings connected, cut them at the joints and discard the tip. Also, feathers are not appreciated. So get rid of those too.

Mix up your flour and spices in a large mixing bowl. Toss the wings until coated. Refrigerate, could be up to a couple of hours ahead of cooking.

Whisk ranch ingredients in a bowl, cover and refrigerate. The longer this happens the more flavour you’ll get from the herbs in it.

Now to the Buffalo sauce, this is easy, but you’ve got to be focused on it. Add all your ingredients into a small saucepan on a med-low heat. Whisk and as soon as you see bubbles anywhere remove from heat and set aside.

Now you’re ready to wing it! XD If you use a fryer, good onya. I don’t have one, probably wouldn’t get used enough, so I go old school.  In a 20cm pot heat your oil up to about 180C.

Carefully drop in wings, shake or turn to make sure an even cook. Give them about 10 min, remove to drain over paper towel and start the next batch. I can usually do a kilo in 2 batches.

Toss cooked wings in Buffalo sauce and serve hot with ranch dip and lots of veggies.

Dan’s Middle Eastern Lamb Pilaf

Spices, meat, rice! To me that’s the basics of comfort food you’ve got spice for flavour, meat more flavour and texture and then the flavour carrier, in this case rice. It’s a combination that fills you with excitement and nostalgia! Smell brings up memories better than all other senses, so when you smell something, you can often easily place where you last smelt it. This meal smells like home! My mum is a great cook, and Middle Eastern cuisine was something she was very good at and we all loved. Even to the point where specific brands became a must. So now I give you a spice-y (not spicy) meal for the whole family (my one year old spent about an hour eating this joyfully).

Ingredients (Serves 4): 

1/3 Cup Olive Oil
600g of diced Lamb – I get a roast piece and cut it myself, I’m pretty good at this, you can practice, but you don’t have to, feel free to use something easier, even leftover roast lamb that isn’t heavily seasoned.
1 Cup of Basmati – The best rice ever.
1 3/4 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Bay Leaves
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Onion Finely Diced
3 Tsp Cumin
3 Tsp Curry Powder
1/2 Cup of Sultanas
1/3 Cup chopped Parsley
1/3 Cup chopped Mint
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

Optional, but are they? 🙂 You’ll thank me if you splurge: Dollops of Greek Yoghurt, 80g Pistachios, Pomegranate Arils, 200g Feta – crumbly stuff.

Method:

In a bowl toss lamb in half of the oil and half of the cumin and curry powder.

Heat a large pan to medium heat add half , toss in onion and garlic, cook until softened and lightly browned.

Add rice, bay leaves and half of both the cumin and curry powder. Stir to coat grains of rice.

Pour in stock, reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Leave for covered for 12-15 minutes or until rice has absorbed all liquid. Remove from heat and stand for 10 mins. Stir with a fork to fluff it up.

Heat another pan to a high heat. Add lamb that has been marinating. If reheating pre cooked lamb, cook for about 2 mins. If cooking from raw go for about 5-7 until it’s brown with some char on it, but still tender and pink in the centre.

In the last 2 minutes add sultanas, this just opens them a little and gets the sweetness of them through the dish.

Add meat mixture to a large bowl, add rice, mint, parsley and nuts. Toss through with lemon juice.

Serve with generous amounts of yoghurt, feta and/or pomegranate arils.

Enjoy, and then post your feedback! Love hearing what you think ’bout me tucker.

 

 

Some People Believe That Australia Doesn’t Exist!!

 

There is a group of people from Birmingham England that do not believe in Australia. The Flat Earth Believers also believe the earth is not a sphere but is actually flat.

In a Facebook post from last October they shared about how they believe that Australians are all hired actors and that the country of Australia is fake. Really? All 24 million Australians are hired actors? Where is my cheque?

The article states that “the plane pilots are all in on this” as well and that when flying to Australia people are just flown to “island close nearby”.

The group has made multiple post about how they do not believe that Australia exists. In another post they tell people to not listen to people who try to convince you that Australia is real.

 

NASA has used images to prove that the earth is round using things such as GPS, satellites, and photos from space, yet some people still believe that the earth is flat. Let us know what you think!

Christmas Lights Tour in Townsville!

Who doesn’t love Christmas light?!? Why not pack up the family in the car, pump up those Christmas tunes and head out! Townsville is lighting up this Christmas and there is an awesome interactive map below. Find all the hot spots, plan out your drive and spread some Christmas cheer.