Hotdogs are by far the closest thing to a quick meal you will find in my fridge, and a firm kids’ party favourite dite if ever there was one.
July is the month of the hotdog, dubbed so by the Americans who love hotdogs in all their forms over everything else. If you didn’t know, now you do.
It is estimated by the USA National Hotdog and Sausage Council that over seven billion hotdogs will be eaten by Americans between Memorial Day and Labour Day. During the Independence Day, July 4th weekend, alone (the biggest hotdog holiday of the year), 155 million wieners will be chowed. Talk about uitgevriet.
These hotdogs range from simple viennas on a roll to the famous corndog (FYI, a vienna on a stick, battered and deep-fried).
Now in my world, my children love red viennas, cheese grillers and those lekker chicken worsies.
Being kids, they prefer them without the roll, warmed in the microwave for 30 seconds, and three at a time. Lunch done and dusted. These kids have it sooo lekker.
My mother, who is a firm believer in a good onion- smoortjie, would usually warn us that she was not cooking, and we then had the choice of Dawood’s rooi viennas or Russians on a roll, with her gevaarlike smoortjie, which always had more uiwe than viennas.
She cut those viennas into tiny wheels, added them to a massive pot of onions, gooied them all on a roll en daar is jou supper.
Imagine my shock at the age of seven when my bestie’s birthday came up and I got a whole vienna on a roll with tamatie sous.
I was upset until I realised, yoh, this is normal. My ma het my lekker getrick.
I suppose its these little experiences that shape how we look at food eventually.
There are fabulous things we can do with viennas today – gourmet grillers, pigs in a blanket and viennas with chips (a Cape Flats staple).
But sometimes I still go back home and beg my mom to make me a hotdog, met haar vienna-wheelie-onion-smoortjie, like only she can.
How to make Viennas and Chips
This dite is reserved for padkos. Single or double hotdogs with chips, salad and sauce is the ultimate meal on the road, especially here in Cape Town.
There are a few places in Cape Town, like Aneesa’s, Wembley Roadhouse, and the RoadHouse in Belhar where you can find excellent hotdog and chips combos.
Method
Slice open a hotdog roll, fill with deep-fried chips (the slapper, the better).
Add some shredded lettuce, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber and your heated vienna or viennas.
Douse it with your favourite sauce and voila!
Jou eie roadhouse special. As jy wil kwaai wies, toast your roll.
How to make Spicy Corn Dogs
Ingredients
- 300ml Maizena
- 150ml flour
- 7 ml baking powder
- 5 ml barbeque spice
- Two eggs
- 200 – 250 ml milk
- Enough oil for deep-frying
- Eight viennas or a piece of sausage
- A little cake flour for dusting the viennas
Method
- Cut the sausages in eight even pieces, or place eight viennas in a pan with a little oil and cook till gaar. Cool the sausages.
- Pour the corn flour, flour, baking powder and spice in a bowl.
- Whisk the eggs and 200ml of the milk together and add to the flour mixture. If the mixture is too thick, add a little more milk.
- Heat the oil in a deep pan. Stick a piece of sausage on a wooden skewer and roll the sausage in flour.
- Now dip it in the batter and let the excess batter run off. Dip into the hot oil and turn to fry on all sides. When golden brown, remove from the oil and drain on kitchen towel.
How to make Pigs in a Blanket
Ingredients
- 8 viennas, sliced in half
- 8 slices processed cheese
- Ready-made dough
Method
Preheat oven to 175°C. Wrap cheese around each vienna, then wrap around the dough. Put on cooking tray, with the overlap of biscuit faced down, so you don’t have to use tooth picks. Bake in preheated oven until pastries are brown, about 10 to 15 minutes.