grab a dog!
Crawling back to my blog. Do you call that clogging?
This past Saturday we were wooed and wowed by Homestead Farms hot dogs at the SFC farmers market at Sunset Valley. I hadn’t even planned on buying meat that trip but Austin Frugal Foodie can’t resist a frankfurter! Homestead Farms raises grassfed cattle in the Waco area and fashions the meat into a selection of charcuterie including cold cuts, which I’d previously purchased at the Austin Farmers Market downtown. The folks running the sales booth are sweet sellers hawking sustainable and tasty Texas beef. A warm sample of wiener was all it took to sway me and I immediately began brainstorming both haute-doggery and plebian preparations.
Homestead Farms hot dogs, while not as smooth and homogeneous as mass-market franks, deliver that familiar flavor, so yummy with yellow mustard—I like Central Market organic. Or lots of ketchup—that’s how the kindergartner digs ’em.
Here’s an easy and totally fun recipe to enjoy with children young and old. Portable, the finished franks can conveniently tag along to the park when it stops raining.
PORKYPONES makes about 19 -21 pig pockets (beef bullets?)
- 2 ounces (1/2 stick) organic butter, melted and browned a bit. I love Organic Valley. Click for a coupon.
- 3 Tablespoons turbinado sugar. I buy this in bulk. Remember to bring your own container and have the staff tare the weight for you.
- 1 cup local milk. Check out Swede Farm Dairy and Wateroak Farms goat milk.
- 2 local eggs
- 1 teaspoon salt. I like Real Salt.
- 121 grams (1 cup) organic all-purpose flour. Whole Foods 365 brand in the 5# bag is usually the best buy.
- 4 1/8 ounces (3/4 cup) organic cornmeal. I generally choose Arrowhead Mills.
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder, sieved (I use Rumford, aluminum-free and non-GMO)
- 3 Homestead Farms hot dogs, or other local frankfurters (or choose organic), cut in half crosswise and each half quartered into 4 strips
Grease up three cornstick pans with the lube of your choice. Organic neutral oils, melted butter and pork fat will all work. Preheat the oven to 425°. I use the hot oven to melt and brown the butter. Just put it in an ovenproof saucepan and stick it in there. Remember to grab a potholder before reaching for the pan! Let the butter cool a bit on a cooling rack.
Whisk together the sugar, milk, eggs and salt. Whisk together your dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour the dry ingredients on top of the wet ingredients and barely combine them using a flexible spatula if you have one. You only want to unite these elements about halfway. Pour your butter over the mess and continue to combine the ingredients just until a few very discernible streaks of flour and butter remain. Don’t overstir.
Using a large spoon, fill each cornstick cavity with batter. Place one hot dog strip into each section, skin-side down. Press the wiener into the batter a bit to tuck it in.
Bake for about 12 minutes, until the batter is cooked through and lightly browned. Remove pans from the oven and carefully unmold each porkypone, placing them on a cooling rack.
Serve with your favorite dog dressin’s! Porkypones taste great at room temperature, too.
Savor The Earth 