Making Hot Dogs

A good friend and former colleague is the current Executive Chief of the restaurant, Le Cigar Volant, at the tasting room of Bonny Doon in Santa Cruz.  He was my Chef de Cuisine at Baume.  I volunteer (or "stage") at Le Cigar Volant once or twice a month to keep my professional cooking skills from getting too rusty.

In July, he was prepping for a barbecue at his place and I helped him make hot dogs.  Cool, huh?  I thought it was pretty sick.  (Meaning awesome!)  Yeah - I'm catching up on blogposts...

Grass Fed Beef Shank, cut down into chunks and seasoned with salt, garlic, onion powder, and a little pink salt (or nitrates for preservation)

Stuffed Sausages hanging in the refrigerator so that the casing dries out for a more crisp "bite"

Smoking the dogs the day after

The smoked dogs are then cooked in gently simmering water

Then grilled again before serving to a hungry crowd eagerly awaiting the delicious dogs

These gourmet dogs were served on fresh baked brioche hot dog buns made by his lovely wife and pastry chef - Yoomi Hur.  Chef Shelton also made potato salad from homemade mayonnaise for his party.  I made an asian cabbage slaw as my contribution.  There were happy tummies all around.

No actual puppies were harmed in the making of these gourmet hot dogs.  (It's a cute little mini-dog isn't it?)