RogueChef

Chili Bacon Cheese Dog

Some where there is a man who is an unsung hero of classic American food. He is the man who placed a grilled hot dog on a bun, added spicy chili, American cheese, onions, and crumpled bacon.

This is not a dish for a garden party, but it is a dish that fits well with cooking in the great out doors.

Background

A chili dog is a hot dog that is served topped with chili con carne (usually without beans). Often, other toppings are also added, such as cheese, onions, and mustard. One popular variety of chili dog is the Coney dog, which despite its name originally came from Michigan and not Brooklyn. A Coney dog is a hot dog piled high with chili, onions and mustard. A Michigan dog is similar to a Coney, as is a Texas hot dog, which is actually from Pennsylvania.

Chili dogs are also popular in areas that have large Mexican-American populations, such as California, Texas and Arizona. In California, regional chains such as Pink’s and Original Tommy’s specialize in chili dogs and chili burgers. A major difference between chili dogs in the Southwestern United States and Coneys is that Southwestern chili dogs have spicier chili and are served with brown mustard or no mustard at all, whereas Coneys have spicier dogs and are usually served with yellow mustard. A Sonoran dog, served in Arizona, is a chili dog that also contains bacon and salsa.

A hot dog is a type of fully cooked, cured and/or smoked moist sausage of soft, even texture and flavor, usually made from mechanically recovered meat or meat slurry. It is usually placed hot in a soft, sliced hot dog bun of approximately the same length as the sausage, and optionally garnished with condiments and toppings.

In the United Kingdom and Australia, hot dog refers more commonly to the combination of sausage and bun, with the sausage called a frankfurter.

Hot dogs are a cinch. It’s ideal to grill fresh dogs, but if yours are frozen, defrost them first.

Here’s the routine:

1. Toss them on a medium-hot grill.

(Split lengthwise for flat dogs / chili dogs)

2. Cook hot dogs until they’re slightly blistered on all sides (approximately 5 minutes).
3. Turn them frequently.

Take a all beef hot dog, split it lengthwise, and grill as above, after grilling drop onto a toasted hot dog bun, add a slather of Texas Red Chili, a bit of American Cheese, some chopped red onion, and just for the taste and texture combination add a rasher or two of crumpled bacon.

Bief a Portuguesa

A client took me to a Portuguese restaurant and recommended the most spectacular steak dish. I’ve gone back several times, just to try and sort out the process, since the waiters and chef seem to be immune to flattery as a way of gaining entrance to their kitchen. (Must remember to take a svelte young lady along next time and have her flatter them…)

Many thanks to Kleber, Danny, and Ken for inviting me into their special place

A ribeye or strip steak is broiled to order then served in a boat dish with the most fantastic garlic butter sauce and topped with a fried egg. The combination of the various fats makes an incredible mouth feel. Served with fried potatoes, rice and black beans this is a meal that serves the rest of the day…

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Fish Friday – Tuna

As mother’s day approaches, I search for a meal to please Madam Bad Wolf. She likes fish, but I hate Salmon, she’ll eat catfish, but won’t like it. Maybe a compromise with a GOOD GRADE of tuna.

Tuna is an amazing food with a number of benefits that contribute to a healthy lifestyle. It is rich in Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and has been known to reduce the risk of heart disease, also low in fat and cholesterol making it a great alternative to beef. Not only is tuna a powerhouse of nutrition, it is also one of the most delicious sources of lean protein that you will ever put in your mouth.

Background

Tuna are a group of salt water fish from the family Scombridae, particularly of the genus Thunnus. Tuna are fast swimmers, and some species are capable of speeds of 70 km/h (43 mph). Unlike most fish, which have white flesh, the muscle tissue of tuna ranges from pink to dark red. The red coloration derives from myoglobin, an oxygen-binding molecule, which tuna express in quantities far higher than most other fish. Some larger tuna species, such as bluefin tuna, display some warm-blooded adaptations, and can raise their body temperatures above water temperatures by means of muscular activity. This enables them to survive in cooler waters and to inhabit a wider range of ocean environments than other types of fish.

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Hearty Tomato Soup

Ok, the weather has been bleh for the last several days. Rain, mist, cool, cold, at one point, hot, steamy, sweaty at another, and then back to cold and wet, just the perfect thing for walking pneumonia… All with a pollen count from high to I ITCH all over…. Needless to say hay fever / allergies / pneumonia has had me in their evil grip for the last several days. Sick enough that posting has been too much strain….

Now there is just one thing to defeat the achy, bakey feeling… SOUP!

But what if I start with a super thick and hearty flavorful tomato sauce and then thin down to a soup consistency with my homemade chicken stock, and kick the mouth feel up with real cream….

When Roasted, the peppers get a nice char on them, the garlic and shallots become soft and deep-flavored, and the tomatoes get so sweet, you’ll know the final sauce has got some other rogue chef secret ingredients. Even just plain roasted tomatoes will be awesome on your pasta or pizza. Also great about this sauce – the thick consistency. As anyone who’s tried to make a fresh pasta sauce knows, tomatoes are FULL of water and make for a runny sauce, you spend hours simmering to cook off the water and caramelize the tomatoes . Not so with roasting. The sauce is thick and rich and oh so delicious!

Does this take time YES!. Is it worth it? YES! It IS all about the taste and the comfort that good food brings. If you can not understand that experience, I’ll leave the can opener out on the counter

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Fried Livers and Gizzards

This is a recipe that will have some saying, EEEEWWW!!!!. Others will ask “THIS is YOUR Big Sunday Meal?”

The answer to the later is a resounding, “YES!”. In my youth this was a big meal, worth of special company, and forget the breasts, as the chicken legs, thighs, livers and gizzards were the prized pieces, due to one thing and one thing alone… FLAVOR!!

Stepping onto the soap box…

One has to consider the life experiences of the adults of my youth, from World War I, to the Great Depression, to World War II, all of which had some form of food rationing. If not by “law” by finance..

This was a time that most of the food eaten was grown by the people eating it. There were no “food factory” massive farms, but in the case of this dish a bunch of chickens running around in a barnyard. Each one was known, named, and cared for, from egg to skillet.

Everything from the diet to the exercise to the time taken to produce a mature chicken in 2-3 years not 6 months, added to the flavor and texture of the meat.

These were not animals in a cage, but creatures, known, named, and cared for, from egg to skillet. They were almost parts of the extend family, and as such throwing items like liver and gizzards was just sinful, and if not sinful just out and out wasteful. (Do note, I’d eat the “offal” from that barnyard a lot faster than I’d eat food from a “factory farm”.)

Chicken lights and livers are working organs and as such can take on some rather funky tastes and smells, but an overnight soak in buttermilk will remove all of these. Once these have soaked they can be drained, dredged, dipped and dredged again, then rested before frying. The point here is to generate a crisp crust that will help keep the moisture in the meat while it undergoes the thermal trip from au natural to nirvana. The fond left after becomes the base for a rich and wonderful cream gravy that is often served over these morsels.
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Southwestern Chicken Soup

It is Cinco De Mayo, and it is cold and rainy, not the day for Guacamole and Cervesa’s on the roof-top Terrance. More like a day for chicken soup, kicked up with cumin, cilantro, jalapenos, shredded chicken and crispy tortilla strips to add a pleasant texture contrast

This Tex-Mex soup is loaded with peppers, herbs, tomatoes. spices and is served with shredded chicken, and tortilla strips

Traditionally, fall is when older and less productive hens are culled from the farmyard. These birds a not like the mass produced, growth hormone enhanced, speed grown, never out of a 2′ x 2′ x 2′ cage, pieces of flavorless meat, they are mature (2-3 years not 6 months), feed on corn and natural foods, and exercised to develop collagen and flavor. I urge you, if at all possible, acquire one of these birds from a reputable source. The taste is truly night and day. I will also caution you that labels like free-range mean as much as the paper they are printed on…. (I did say reputable source)

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