BBQ113/17 – Hot Dogs and Toffee Apples:
For bonfire night we invited some of our friends and their kids round for some food and to see the local bonfire and firework display. I wanted to try and keep it simple but cook something that everyone should like but also something to eat outside for bonfire night – Hot Dogs!
We cooked the Spuntino Eagle Rock Dogs before and absolutely loved them so decided to repeat that cook:
The Meat:
The hot dogs are from Turner and George, they are the best hot dog sausages I have found so far. Really, really tasty.
The Prep:
As with the last cook, my wife prepared everything to go with the hot dog – copy and paste from the last cook:
I fried a couple of onions in some rapeseed oil, very (very!) slowly so as to caramelise but not burn them. I set them aside on some kitchen paper while I did the rest.
Next up, Russian dressing. To a small bowl I added half a cup of mayonnaise, a couple of tablespoons of ketchup, 2 teaspoons of horseradish sauce, half a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, a dash of smoked paprika and a splash of chipotle Tabasco. Mix together and add salt to taste.
I finely diced a large gherkin and smashed up a packet of ready salted crisps (stick with me….I promise I’m not mad!) and was ready to assemble.
I toasted some brioche hotdog buns (has anyone found any decent sized hotdog buns? The only ones I can find are either horrible or tiny!) and added the dogs. A layer of Russian dressing coats the dog first, a sprinkling of the sticky onions on top, some little pieces of gherkin then some crushed crisps to finish them off. It sounds so wrong but tastes SO right.
I fired up a full chimney of Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend and once lit I poured it into charcoal baskets placed in the centre of the grill. I then placed the Hellfire Halo onto the grill with the centre insert in place as well.
The Cook:
Last time the sausages split a bit so this time I pricked them all over with a pin and placed them around the Hellfire Halo and over the cooler part of the grill. I dropped some Apple chips into the centre and started frying some onions.
Things got a bit hectic as the kids were running around, I was trying to cook but keep drinks topped up and also chat to folk so I didn’t get many photos! This is the only photo of the hot dogs I got.
Time to Eat:
I had smoked some cheese the night before and also smoked some water to be used with toffee apples. I just filled up 2 baking trays and left them in the smoker for 12 hours. When I took them out they were more yellow in colour and smelt/tasted of Whisky Oak!
The Toffee Apples looked great and were quite easy to make but the toffee wasn’t quite right. It was quite hard but also stuck to the roof of your mouth, we will practice with that and get it right. However, you could taste the smoked water so that was worth doing.
Summary:
It was great to have a load of folk round. It’s one of the main reasons we got the garden redone and the hut built to create a social space outside. It was bloody freezing that night so I will need to get some fire pits.
The hot dogs were awesome and went down a treat. Pricking the sausages with a pin stopped them splitting this time so I will do that every time now.
| Cook Equipment: | Weber Kettle |
| Cook Method: | Indirect / Halo |
| Charcoal: | Oxford Charcoal Hardwood Blend |
| Smoking Wood: | Apple Chips |
| Cook temperature: | 250C |
| Cook time: | 10m |
| Internal temperature: | 75C |
| Notes: | Pricking the sausages with a pin stopped them splitting |