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The Blue Ostrich Burger

Ostrich meets BBQ, blue cheese and onion rings in this delightfully playful take on your average blue cheese steak burger.
Course Main
Cuisine Fusion
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Servings 2
Author Johan Johansen

Ingredients

Basic ingredients:

  • 2 ostrich steaks about 4-500 grams total (I used pre-cooked, frozen)
  • 2 burger buns
  • 2 whole pickles

Hot wing sauce:

  • 2 tablespoons Tabasco
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 dash Ghost Chili / Mango hot sauce optional

Blue cheese dressing

  • 50 grams sour cream
  • 50 grams crumbled quality blue cheese
  • 25 grams mayonnaise
  • 1 small clove garlic minced
  • 1 teaspoon buttermilk
  • Juice of 1/4 lemon
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Coleslaw:

  • 50 grams cabbage shredded
  • 25 grams carrot shredded
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 pinch freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch cumin
  • 1 pinch Cayenne
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon Crème Fraiche or sour cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard

BBQ Sauce

  • 25 grams butter
  • 1 teaspoon onion powder
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground chipotle
  • 200 ml Heinz Ketchup
  • 50 ml apple cider vinegar
  • 2 tablespoons honey
  • 1/2 orange juiced
  • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon Tabasco
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste
  • 1 dash liquid smoke

Onion rings:

  • 1 large onion cut into half centimeter thick slices
  • 150 grams flour
  • 200 ml buttermilk
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 50 grams bread crumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

Instructions

Make hot wing sauce:

  1. Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium-low heat.
  2. Add honey and let melt as well.
  3. Stir in Tabasco sauce and Ghost Chili sauce if using.
  4. Stir for a minute to combine and set aside to cool.

Make blue cheese sauce:

  1. Add all blue cheese sauce ingredients to food processor and process until a uniform but still slightly lumpy mass has formed.
  2. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
  3. Refrigerate till needed.

Make BBQ sauce:

  1. In a small sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.
  2. Once butter is melted, add in garlic powder, onion powder and chipotle then fry for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.
  3. Add tomato paste and fry for about a minut.
  4. Pour in all other sauce ingredients and stir well to combine.
  5. Bring sauce to a boil and let boil for about 30 minutes or until reduced by half and thick in texture.
  6. Set aside to cool.

BBQ Ostrich

  1. Liberally baste ostrich steaks with the hot wing sauce and set aside at room temperature.
  2. Light a low and slow fire in a small kettle grill using a handful or two of charcoal briquettes (depending on the size of your grill).
  3. Once briquettes are ready, add about a handful of (non-soaked) hickory smoke chips to the coals, then place the ostrich steaks over indirect heat, put the lid on the grill and cook for about an hour at 100-120C.
  4. If at the end of the cooking period, a probe thermometer registers a core temperature of less than 60C, you may finish the steaks over direct heat for a bit of char or in the oven.
  5. While ostrich is smoking, prepare the rest of the toppings.

Make coleslaw:

  1. Toss cabbage and carrots with all spices and a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, leave to marinade in a bowl for about 30 minutes.
  2. When the thirty minutes are off, place in a colander and squeeze out any excess liquid.
  3. Whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream and mustard to create a dressing, and gently fold a little at the time into the cabbage/carrot mix to create a very lightly dressed coleslaw. Refrigerate till needed.

Make onion rings:

  1. Heat a deep fryer or pot of oil to 180C.
  2. Carefully separate onion slices into rings, then lightly toss in a bit of flour.
  3. Whisk together egg, buttermilk, flour and baking powder and salt to form a lump-free batter.
  4. Dip onion slices in batter allowing the excess to drain off, then place in breadcrumbs and give them a few good pats to help the breadcrumbs stick.
  5. Fry battered onion rings in the oil in batches until golden brown, delicious and crunchy.
  6. Put cooked onion rings on a rack and sprinkle with fine salt to taste.

Assemble burger:

  1. Toast the bun in a toaster or oven for a few minutes.
  2. While bun is toasting, slice ostrich steak into thin slices.
  3. Split burger bun in half and add a bed of coleslaw to the bottom bun.
  4. Top coleslaw with ostrich followed by a healthy dose of the BBQ sauce, a few onion rings and, finally, as much blue cheese sauce as you deem fit.
  5. Add top bun and a pickle on the side.
  6. Serve with remaining onion rings and/or fries with additional BBQ sauce and blue cheese sauce for dipping.