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The jaffle. It's a quintessential Australian toasted sandwich, with the jaffle maker designed by Dr Earnest Smithers from Bondi in NSW. The appliance's unique attributes include raised grooves on its exterior and sealed edges, which help to heat the filling as the bread toasts. Anyone who has bitten into a jaffle knows to let it cool down first or risk scalding their tongue.
The key to any jaffle is to have a moist filling to counter the dryness of the toast. Making a jaffle is an easy way to quickly turn your leftovers into a piping-hot lunch.
Here are some select jaffle recipes from those in the know.
Bolognese and bechamel
Source: Anjum’s Australian Spice Stories
The go-to jaffle of Adam Liaw, the host of SBS Food's The Cook Up, involves leftover bolognese.
"You make a quick bechamel," says Liaw. "[Then add] bolognese and bechamel inside the toasted sandwich maker, and you get like a lasagna sandwich."
This is also ideal for people who don't eat cheese but still want something creamy.
JAFFLE TIME
Lasagne jaffle
Cauliflower and silverside
Craig Quartermaine, standup comedian, journalist and host of ABC TV's Movin' to the Country, refers to his jaffle as the "leftover special".
It marries cauliflower cheese (cauliflower cooked in a melted cheese sauce) with sliced-up silverside and is toasted in multigrain bread for a bit of texture.
Kewpie spicy tuna
Rosheen Kaul, head chef at Melbourne's Etta restaurant, gives her spicy tuna jaffle a Japanese twist.
Kaul mixes canned tuna, diced, raw onion, fresh chilli and Kewpie mayonnaise to fill her jaffle. It's like sushi in bread form, as Liaw says.
Vegan
There are plenty of options if you're vegan. Union Kiosk is a vegan jaffle joint in Melbourne. It spruiks the likes of vegan Korean beef, kimchi, gochujang mayo and cheese jaffles. It even offers vegan bolognese, mozzarella and garlic butter fillings.
The vegan cheese is meltable, which is something to check if you're making vegan jaffles at home since not all vegan cheeses can melt with ease.
Just like pies or regular sandwiches, jaffles offer even the laziest of cooks the chance to get creative.
