Chilli Cheese Dog Pies

I know it's a little bit late for the 4th of July, but here's a little tribute to America, the undisputed kings of junk food. Chili cheese dog pies.

I would have loved to have brought a whole pile of chili dogs to the July Band Of Bakers event, but it wouldn't really be practical. It wouldn't really be baking, either. So this is the next best thing.

First of all I obviously had to make the chili. I made it fairly hot, with a large chili pepper, cayenne pepper, chili powder, cumin, Tabasco, and smoked chili paste. Once it had cooled, it was time to assemble the pies.

Twelve individual pastry cases with hot dogs inside...

Topped with chili...

And red cheese...

And yellow cheese (as I imagine Americans might call it). Then baked in the oven for 20 minutes.

Served warm(ish) with a dash of American mustard.

It's funny how things always taste hotter when you're cooking them. My wife coughed and spluttered when she tried a spoon of the chili, but in the final pie format, it tasted rather tame. Just as well I brought the mustard!

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Chili Verde Enchiladas

Making dinner is often a fine balancing act, between the kind of thing I like to eat (greasy, fatty, spicy, messy) and something other people might consider to be actual food. So when I offered to cook the other night, my wife's repsonse was a cautious "OK, as long as it won't end up on your ridiculous blog". The poor woman was probably expecting something unspeakably disgusting, fashioned from frozen burgers and curry sauce.

But I guess I had the last laugh, because we happily ate every last mouthful, and here it is on my blog... chili verde enchiladas.

What's that, I hear you say? Vegetabes? Fresh herbs? Well yes, but bear with me.

Chili verde is a Mexican pork stew, in a spicy green sauce. Not so common here, but you see it all over the place in the US. My version isn't really authentic... the proper version contains tomatillos, but I don't think you can get them here, so I improvised a little. I started making the sauce by frying onions with assorted chillies, garlic, cumin, salt and pepper.

Once the onions were browned, I added some smoked chilli paste, chicken stock, chopped green pepper, coriander, dried oregano, and lime juice (in lieu of the missing sourness from the tomatillos). After everything had softened and cooked down a bit, I blended the sauce until it was nice and smooth.

I then browned some pork shoulder, added it to the sauce (including lots of fatty bits), and put the whole lot in the oven for a couple of hours - until the pork was falling apart.

Now, doesn't that look great? Greasy and meaty, with a fiery heat, and it doesn't taste all all "vegetabley". It's great on it's own or with some rice, but it's even better as an enchilada filling - rolled between tortillas, topped with extra sauce and grated cheese, and cooked in the oven for a few minutes.

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Juicy Lucy Burger

The "Juicy Lucy" is a burger with cheese stuffed inside of it, instead of placed on the top like a regular cheeseburger. An American invention (naturally), the result is a huge slab of a burger, packed with hot molten cheese. Guaranteed to cause a mess, and quite possibly scold the roof of your mouth.

So far so good. But this wasn't enough for me, I wanted my own unique twist, something that would really pack a flavour. I considered a few different options, until I settled on a sort of "Tex-Mex" theme... hot chili tomato sauce on one side of the burger, and guacamole on the other.

I made the spicy sauce by frying chopped onion and chili, adding black pepper and cumin, then chucking in some tomato puree, ketchup, Tabasco, and chopped coriander.

The burger was made by sandwiching a big lump of cheese (Cheddar and Gouda) in between two large burgers, and pressing the edges together while it cooked. I squashed the whole thing down as much as possible, but it was still a gargantuan burger. I actually had to put it in the oven to make sure it was cooked through.

This monstrosity - placed between a toasted bun with generous dollops of guacamole and the spicy tomato stuff - is a whole meal in itself. No chips or onion rings necessary, just a comfy chair and a nice cold beer.

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Chili Dog

A visit to Coney Island on a wet and windy day proved to be something of a disappointment. The scruffy boardwalk was deserted, half of the amusement park was closed, and the few people who had braved the elements seemed to be taking refuge in the local "Nathan's Famous" restaurant.

It's the original restaurant in the Nathan's chain, and host of the legendary annual hot dog eating contest. So seemed like a good place to get a hot dog. But the chili on my chili-cheese dog was runny and nowhere near spicy enough, and the cheese was flavourless. A heartbreaking end to a disappointing afternoon.

It certainly wasn't a patch on my home made version. Topped with left-over chili spiked with extra hot sauce, and plenty of grated extra mature cheddar, you could never accuse this dog of lacking in flavour.

I put the whole thing in the microwave for 20 seconds to melt the cheese and soften up the bun, and then topped it with fried onions.

If you want a job done right, sometimes you've just got to do it yourself.

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Chilli Nacho Pie

"What's that?" my wife asked as she arrived home, smelling something cooking. "Lasagne?"
"Not exactly," I responded hesitantly.
"Shepherd's pie!", she exclaimed, peering through the window of the oven.
"Erm... sort of".
"What is it, then?"
"Er... chilli pie. With tortilla chips in it".
"What? What the hell? Why would you do that?"
"Because it tastes good", I replied, truly believing I was stating the obvious.
"I'm going to tell everyone on Twitter what my stupid husband is eating for dinner".

And so it went. But I maintain that this pie really does taste good.

This is a dish of layers. Chilli, tortilla chips, more chilli, then mash. I like my chilli with lots of cumin, fresh chillies, and tomatoes. Sainsburys "basics" tortilla chips are actually perfect... not too salty. And most importantly, cheap.

To make the mash extra tasty, I added cream, butter, egg yolk, grated cheese, salt and pepper, tabasco, some surplus gravy from the chilli... and a few handfuls of crushed tortilla chips.

After half an hour in the oven on a high heat, you have a nice crispy crust!

To be honest, this pie isn't really all that filthy. In fact it's practically proper food - it even has vegetables in it. But it tastes great, and for my money it's much more enjoyable than a crappy old shepherd's pie.

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