- [Andrew] Today's episode is sponsored by Google.
This week on Basics, we're not just talking about the basics
of corn dogs, we're talking security basics.
But not of corn dogs.
Rather, your personal information,
which is important to ensure is kept safe online.
That's why Google created their free password manager,
built right into your Google accounts.
You can create to remember and safely store unique
strong passwords for all of your online accounts.
This helps protect your online privacy by making your
personal information stay private to you.
I'll show you more later, but for now,
let's get down to basics.
(jazzy music)
(smooth music)
All right, so we're going to be making three different kinds
of corn dogs today, but they all have
one thing in common, batter.
and like most batters, we're going to start
by combining the dry ingredients and wet ingredients
separately and then bringing them together.
For our classic corn dog, we're combining one cup
all purpose flour, one cup fine corn meal,
two teaspoons baking powder, one tablespoon sugar,
one teaspoon kosher salt, a quarter teaspoon of cayenne,
and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper.
Tiny whisk until homogenous
and then grab yourself another bowl for liquids.
One cup of whole milk, two tablespoons of vegetable oil,
one large egg, shell removed and discarded,
and one tablespoon of honey.
Tiny whisk these guys until homogenous,
and then it's time for the dry and the wet
to get to know each other.
Dump it on and begin to administer a thorough paddling.
We want a nice loose slightly lumpy pancake batter-like
texture, which as you can see, I do not have,
but that's not a problem.
We can just add a half cup of milk until we reach
our desired consistency.
There we go, that's what we're looking for.
Maybe more like a waffle batter than a pancake batter.
Then comes my favorite part of the day, the dog dip.
Go ahead and pour your batter into a tall Collins glass,
and if you're a father of any kind, you should pretend
to drink the batter out of the glass
to the delight of your children.
Pat your hot dogs dry with some paper towels and retrieve
your skewers, upon which we shall impale our hot dogs.
This is a simple enough process.
You're basically just shoving one thing into another thing,
leaving a little of the first things sticking out.
And then I'm going to give these guys a roll in cornstarch.
This, of course. not only looks hilarious,
It's going to help dry out the exteriors of the hot dogs
and help the better adhere during the frying process.
Once you've gotten all that icky hot dog cornstarch
off your hands, it's time to dip,
and now you might understand why we used a Collins glass.
It's the best and most efficient way
to cover the dog evenly and without any dramas.
Once dipped, it's headed straight into a vat
of 375-degree Fahrenheit peanut oil.
Peanut is my deep frying oil of choice,
but if you're allergic, you can use canola, vegetable,
any of the deep frying heavy hitters.
Gently lower them into the oil,
let 'em go for three to four minutes,
and when you inevitably try and fail to flip them over,
you can just sort of hold them down to make sure
that they brown evenly.
Then we're going to drain them on paper towels,
which is gonna help soak up excess oil
and keep them from getting soggy.
Let 'em cool for about five minutes
if you at all value the sanctity of your mouth.
Maybe try to hold 'em up like a bouquet or Wolverine claws.
Doesn't really work too well.
Stack them into an attractive pyramidal shape
and serve with mustard and ketchup.
And there you have it, the corn dog.
Processed meat stuffed into a tube, battered,
and deep fried. An American dynasty.
The batter has a light fluffy interior and crispy exterior,
a distinct corny flavor, and a hint of sweetness.
And the hot dog is positively dripping with hot dog flavor.
This one will take you right back to the county fairs
of your childhood, but what about a spin on the formula?
How about a corn dog for breakfast?
I have here a bunch of commercially-available
breakfast sausages, which I'm going to fully cook
according to manufacturer's specifications
and allow to cool completely.
And then for the batter, I'm thinking what's essentially
gonna be a pancake better.
I got one and three quarter cups all purpose flour,
two tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of cornmeal,
and two teaspoons of baking powder,
tiny whisked until homogenous.
For liquids, I got one and one quarter cups of buttermilk,
one somewhat explosive egg, a half teaspoon
of vanilla extract, and two tablespoons of maple syrup.
Now tiny whisk that until homogenous and add the dry stuff.
And just like your dad said on Sunday morning,
you don't want to over mix your pancake batter, son.
Remember, bud, nobody likes a tough flapjack.
Again, we want a thick pancake batter-like consistency,
sSo adjust as necessary with milk.
Then it's pretty much the same procedure as before.
Skewer your meat tubes.
Oop, hang on a second.
Almost forgot the butter.
We want to add two tablespoons of melted and cooled butter
to our pancake batter.
There we go. Now just pretend that I did that before.
Into a glass it goes, and these are pretty small sausages,
so this should work just fine.
Roll your sausages and cornmeal, shaking off the excess
before dipping, entirely ensconcing in a layer
of pancake batter.
Deep fry at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for three to four minutes
until deeply golden brown, drain on paper towels,
allow to cool for at least five minutes
before serving proudly with jam and maple syrup.
There you have it, a delicious, practical, and portable way
to maximize your calorie count every morning.
It's sweet, it's savory, it's breakfast in a bite.
And this got me thinking, how could the corn dog model
be applied to other meals and cuisines?
And it didn't take long for me to have an epiphany.
Merguez lamb sausage dipped in a falafel-style better.
If your merguez is not cooked, you're once again
gonna need to cook it 'til it registers 155,
165 degrees Fahrenheit internally.
While those cool completely,
I'm gonna make us a little dippin' sauce.
In a small bowl, we're gonna combine half a cup
of Greek yogurt and the juice of half of one lemon,
along with a quarter cup of tahini
and about two tablespoons of Dijon mustard.
Season to taste with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper,
tiny whisk to combine, and there you have it a quick, easy,
delicious dipping sauce for our dogs.
Now onto the batter.
First up, whoops.
Since we're just making this for ourselves,
we can adhere to the five-second rule.
We're going to roughly chop one clove of garlic and toss it
into the bowl of a food processor,
along with two tablespoons of olive oil,
about a half cup of packed parsley leaves.
Go ahead and process those together
until pretty finely chopped.
Then we're going to add one cup of canned chickpeas,
rinsed and drained.
Then go ahead and pulse that together,
scraping down the sides occasionally
until it's relatively smooth.
We want a nice thick paste with visible flex of herbs.
Then, in a large bowl, we are combining one cup
of buttermilk and one large egg, tiny whisking until
homogeneous, and then adding the paste.
Whisk that together until homogenous, and then last
but not least, it's time for the dry stuff.
We are combining one and a half cups chickpea flour,
one teaspoon kosher salt, a half teaspoon of cumin,
a half teaspoon of Aleppo pepper and two teaspoons
of baking powder.
(Andrew inhales deeply)
Tiny whisking until homogenous and then adding to
the wet stuff, gently paddling together until it resembles
a thick pancake batter, sticking a skewer into our
merguez sausages, rolling them around in cornstarch,
shaking out the excess, dipping in batter,
deep frying at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for three to four
minutes until deeply golden brown,
draining on paper towels and allowing to cool
for five minutes before lining up proudly
next to our lemon tahini yogurt dipping sauce.
(Andrew exhales)
And with, that it's time to enjoy.
And with that, I can proudly announce that all the corn dogs
made today turned out really, really, really good.
This one's got the pleasant spicy funk of lamb sausage
and a crunchy falafel-like exterior.
And if we call this one dinner,
I think we've got all three meals covered by corn dogs.
Thank you again to Google for sponsoring today's episode.
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All of these features from Google help keep you safe online.
For more info, head link in the video description.