Cajun Entree
BLACKENED TURKEY DOGS
INGREDIENTS
6 turkey hot dogs
6 hot dog buns
½ teaspoon paprika
⅛ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon Poultry MagicTM spice
¼ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon thyme
No-stick cooking spray
PREPARATION
Preheat skillet to 350 degrees. Mix paprika, salt, cayenne, poultry spice, cumin, and thyme on large plate. Coat all sides of the turkey dogs with spray.
Place the turkey dogs on plate and roll them until they are coated with spices. Place turkey dogs in skillet and cook for 8 to 12 minutes making a quarter turn every 1 to 2 minutes, or until spices blacken.
Toast buns. (Why do hot dogs and hot-dog buns come in different amounts? Why has no president done anything about it?) Put turkey dogs in buns. If you like Cajun cooking, you should need no condiments, such as ketchup. But as the French say, “Chaque à son gout.”
TIDBITS
1) I have never seen deliberately blackened hot dogs anywhere. This dish is a product of my feverish imagination. It’s good, though.
2) In 1755 and 1758, the British exiled French Canadians from Acadia. Many moved to Louisiana where they became known as Cajuns.
3) Cajun food is spicy. Canadian food is not. Nor is Eskimo cuisine. Eskimos do not have hot sauce.
4) I mostly grew up in Arcadia, California.
5) Cayenne is the capital of French Guiana. French Guiana is in South America. Why is this land not independent? Do the people love French cooking?
6) Cayenne is mostly grown in Mexico, Asia, Africa, New Mexico, and Louisiana. But apparently not much in a land that has a capital named Cayenne.
7) National Hot Dog Day is July 18.
8) Babe Ruth is believed to have once consumed twelve hot dogs and drunk eight sodas between games of a doubleheader.
9) Americans eat about 150 million hot dogs on the Fourth of July.
10) Humphrey Bogart was a big fan of hot dogs. Coincidentally, he won an Oscar for his performance in The African Queen.
11) Mustard is the favorite hot-dog topping among adult Americans. Kids, however, prefer ketchup.
12) Maybe this recipe will change that.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef, Ph.D.
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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