If I’m anal-retentive about anything, it’s milk shakes. I’ve been making milk shakes since I was a kid in my family’s apartment kitchens, using our green Oster blender with the color-coded Chiclet-shaped buttons. Funny thing—my mom used to use that blender for pureeing kimchi marinade . . . ha! Back then, my family used to go to Bob’s Big Boy and Carnation on Wilshire Boulevard after the movies and get strawberry shakes. In high school, I visited every burger stand from Inglewood to Anaheim searching for the perfect banana milk shake, full of chunks of banana and the sweet creamy magic of life.
When I moved to Stateline, California, to work at the nearby Embassy Suites, I would hop the California-Nevada border late at night and hit the twenty-four-hour coffee shops in the casinos, just for a milk shake. I couldn’t wait for that frosty metal tin and dripping fluted glass. With a long spoon in hand and pounds of maraschino cherries in my stomach, I’d drink it up.
SERVES 4 TO 6
3 cups premium vanilla ice cream
1 banana, chopped
1 cup shaved ice, made by putting ice cubes in a resealable storage bag and crushing them with a can of soup or any other heavy object
3 tablespoons sugar
Microscopic pinch of Maldon sea salt
2 cups whole milk
Frosted Flakes, crushed, and caramel sauce (optional) for garnish
Pack the ice cream down into a blender. Add the banana, ice, sugar, and salt. Pour 1 cup of the milk over the top.
Cover and blend everything until it’s nice and creamy. With the blender still going, open the top and gently add more milk until the shake gets to your desired thickness. Mine is thick but viscous and drinkable with the ice shavings as a backdrop.
Pour the milk shake into a frozen glass and garnish with crushed Frosted Flakes and a drizzle of caramel, if you wish.
POST THIS NOTE:
PUT EVERYTHING IN THE FREEZER TO KEEP IT ICE-COLD, INCLUDING THE BLENDER, BLENDER TOP, AND THE BLADES, THE MILK, AND THE GLASS.
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