Friday 9 December 2011

The main feature



We had hot dogs tonight, so last night I made some chili dog sauce, loosely based on a recipe that wReggie sent me.


I started by digging into the freezer for some meat, only finding about half the amount I needed.  Oh well, carry on.


Sorry about the interruption - Frou Frou wants to play.


OK, that was defrosting in the pan while I chopped 2 large onions.  These were great onions and I was crying like a girl in a couple of minutes.


A tin of tomatoes and the onions joined the meat.


ra ra ra ra ra. hah, got the bear!  go and get it Frou!


There started to simmer over a really low heat while I added the seasoning.


A bit of salt


A generous tablespoon of paprika.


A less generous tablespoon of chili powder.


ra rararaaaaaaaaaaaa! give me the bear, frou!


A teaspoon of cayenne pepper.


Simmered for around half an hour until everything is cooked and sticking together.


Left to cool and then put in the fridge for the next day, the flavours infusing over night.


It was only later that I realised that I had forgotten to add sugar, but this seemed more to everyone's liking.  The pan hardly needed washing by the time dinner was over, and we started to ponder other uses for it - one idea that got a lot of favour was putting it in cheese pastry with more cheese and some chorizo sausage.  Chorizo seems to feature in a lot of our meals lately.  Can you get addicted to pork and paprika?


Back again.  Frou Frou just had to check the garden for cats.


The evenings here are wonderful at the moment.  A bit of a cold breeze, but the sky is clear with a huge, bright moon which makes everything look like those old horror movies where the night scenes were filmed at night with a tinted lens so the shadows look exaggerated.  Great for walking dogs - no one else walks at that time of night, so we have the fields to ourselves.  OK, we share with the foxes,  but they stay almost out of sight and don't bother us unless Frou thinks they are following us.  Custard ignores them entirely - they just don't seem to register with him for some reason.  He ignores a lot of things, seeming to enjoy a carefree life.


OK, Frou has now fallen asleep on the sofa next to me and it is time for me to sign off.


Have a great weekend!

6 comments:

Reggie Hunnicutt said...

Sounds wonderful.

agg79 said...

Great way to wind up the week. I gotta try that recipe. I just haven't tried it with sugar. Would like to try it with some deer meat sausage.

Do you guys have 1015 onions over there? Sweet, tangy, no tears.

terri said...

Really sounds delicious! And I'll bet Frou Frou appreciates your ability to cook and play tug-o-war all at the same time!

Unknown said...

"...These were great onions and I was crying like a girl in a couple of minutes."

This made my afternoon, ha ha ha! :)

Interesting, I've been thinking of cooking chili (western) for quite some time. Our local chili dish would sent you people running for the hills to get milk or ice water :P

Now I'll try the milder stuff.

CiCi said...

So you had chili dogs with your homemade chili sauce. That sounds pretty good. Does it freeze well? I would make some and put into packets for each meal. I have been using paprika lately too. I was using turmeric on everything an then throwing in some fresh herbs, so now I am trying different seasonings.
Frou is a welcome distraction.Haven't found chorizo here yet.

Abby said...

Your chili dog sauce sounds good enough to not need the hot dogs!