For the milk buns
The trick to a good bun is heaps of sugar; that's what makes it soft and shiny. These are called milk buns because of the milk and cream in them. You can also bake this dough into a loaf and cut it into squares, which is really good for parties. If you like, you can even fry the edges in clarified butter. Other good fillings for these buns include tongue and crab.
2 tablespoons lukewarm water
14g dried yeast
280ml milk
220ml cream (35% fat)
720g plain (all-purpose) flour
150g caster (superfine) sugar
20g fine sea salt canola oil spray
Combine the water and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer and allow to stand for five minutes, or until frothy. Heat the milk and cream in a small saucepan over a low-medium heat until lukewarm.
Add the rest of the dry ingredients to the mixer, then add the cream and milk. Attach a dough hook and mix for five minutes on medium-high speed. Check the dough; if it's still sticky, mix for three to four more minutes on high speed until it comes away from the sides of the bowl.
Oil a large bowl well with the canola spray, place the dough in the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for one to two hours, or until doubled in size.
Knock the air out of the dough then weigh it and portion it into 30 even pieces.
Spray a 30cm × 33cm baking tray about 6cm deep with oil.
Hand-roll each piece of dough into a perfect sphere, lightly spraying your hands and the work surface as you go to prevent the dough from sticking. Place the balls into the tray as you go, arranging them five wide and six long. Cover with plastic wrap.
Leave to rise for another one to two hours.
Preheat the oven to 220°C (have the fan off in your oven, if possible). Bake for eight minutes, reduce the heat if they look like they are getting too much colour, then bake for a further eight minutes, or until the buns are light and golden on top. One minute after removing them from the oven, spray the top of the buns heavily with canola oil to give them a nice lustre and prevent them from cracking.
Allow to rest in the tray for five minutes, then turn them out onto a wire rack to cool. Makes 30.
For the cheeseburger
When it comes to a good burger, it's important to have fat, texture and flavour. Every element of a cheeseburger is important; no one ingredient is less important than another, that's what makes it the perfect sandwich. We never work the meat too hard. We mince it three times through a 5mm plate, and then we bring the meat together, roll it into the shape we want and wrap it (we Cryovac it, but really tight plastic wrap will also do the trick). After it sets in the freezer, we slice the patties. That way, you're slicing against the grain, so nothing breaks when you bite into it. Cheese-wise, we like a Kraft single. It's Elvis's favourite cheese. You don't want stretch, you want it to turn into a sauce, and soften the burger.
For the meat patties (makes eight burgers)
200g beef rib meat
200g beef chuck
200g skirt steak
40ml canola oil
Fine sea salt
Building the buns
8 milk buns, halved
8 cheese slices
2 dill pickles, sliced
Quarter of a small white onion, finely diced
American mustard
Tomato sauce
Dice the meat and fit a 5mm plate in your mincer. Mince the meat three times, alternating between the cuts as you go to combine them evenly.
Lay a double layer of plastic wrap on the work surface. Avoid working the meat, just gather it together on the plastic wrap and roll tightly, so it compresses to an 8cm diameter roll. Pierce a couple of holes in the plastic wrap to let some of the air out and to help roll it to the correct size. Add more wrap as you go.
Freeze for about 1−2 hours; enough to set the shape but not freeze the meat, as that will make cutting difficult.
Using a very thin, sharp knife, slice the meat into round patties just under 1cm thick.
Heat two heavy-based frying pans over a medium heat until hot and add the canola oil, then the patties. Sear for about one minute on each side, to keep a slightly pink centre, and sprinkle a little salt on each side of the patty while cooking.
Leave the patties to rest for about one minute before building the burgers any way you like.
For the pulled pork
We don't marinate our pork shoulder before cooking it. The way we like to do it, which makes the biggest difference to the end result, is to put the whole shoulder in a roasting tin that only just holds it, then cover it in marinade, paper and foil. Then we bake it in the oven for 16 hours at 100°C so the marinade cooks into it.
When you pull it out the next day, the trick is to let it sit till it's just cool enough to handle. If it's too cold, you can't pull it. Don't be shy to use your mitts when you're pulling pork. A lot of people pull their meat off so it's all flaky, but we like to keep ours in hunks.
Another one of our secrets is to take the skin after we've pulled all the meat, chop it up and then mix it through the pulled meat. It gives it this amazing texture. Most people throw the skin out, but that's the best bit. If you can't get a shoulder you can also use belly or neck. Belly is awesome because it's got such great fat coverage.
For the meat
1 whole pork shoulder, about 4kg, bone in. (If you're slow cooking for this long it's not worth cooking a smaller piece of meat. Just freeze the leftovers in batches, defrost overnight and use for other meals. This makes eight burgers and extra pork left over
For the marinade
80 ml fish sauce
80 ml soy sauce
40 ml sherry vinegar
25 ml sesame oil
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
250 g molasses
6 garlic cloves
200 g tinned chipotle chillies in adobo sauce
1 × 400 g tin of piquillo peppers, drained
1 brown onion, roughly chopped
Building the buns
Eight milk buns, halved
Pieces of butter pickle
Basic mayo
Handful of coriander leaves
Preheat the oven to 100°C (200°F/Gas 1⁄2). Combine all of the marinade ingredients in a blender and purée till smooth.
Place the shoulder in a roasting tin that just fits it and pour over the marinade. Cover with baking paper and a double layer of foil then cook for 16 hours, or until you can lift back the skin and see that the flesh is falling off the bone.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours.
Carefully move the pork to a board. Pull off the skin, chop it finely then put aside. Pull all of the meat off the bone, then mix the chopped skin through the meat.
Spoon the marinade from the roasting tin into a saucepan and reduce over medium heat until thickened. Return the meat and skin to the roasting tin, pour over the hot marinade then mix together thoroughly.
Cram as much pork as you can into each bun then top with a few bits of pickle, mayo and some coriander leaves.
