d'oh!mestic

My mother is from the Piedmont region of North Carolina, where they take perfectly good hot dogs, smother them in delicious chili and then top that with coleslaw. It is some of the best eating to be had, period.

I know, I know, you’re stumbling over the “topped with coleslaw.” To the uninitiated, it’s like slathering chocolate cake with ketchup — stomach-churningly gross. But life is an adventure, nobody likes a picky eater and my mother always taught me to respect the regional cuisine, so put some damn coleslaw on your chili dogs already.

Or not, because this post really isn’t about having a come-to-Jesus moment with you over the slaw.

This post is about the most fantastic hot dog chili, which is especially timely, given tomorrow’s high holy holiday of Super Bowl Sunday.

All week I had planned on a Friday night where I would come home, open a cold Guinness and make up a mess of chili dogs before settling down on the couch to watch the new X-Files movie.

There were some problems, of course, like where I managed to leave the grocery store without hot dogs or buns, and, um, barbecue sauce for the chili.

And yeah, I remembered that last item just a few minutes before Adam returned from the emergency store run for the hot dogs and buns.

It was a stressful week.

But I am resourceful, sort of, and I have the Gourmet Big Yellow Book of Answers, so I consulted the Big Yellow Book of Answers and came up with their recipe for barbecue sauce and then realized that hell, a little modification would make a fine, straight up chili, which I present to you now.

3 dried red chiles
1 red onion diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes (drained)
1 2″ length of ginger, minced
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup orange juice
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbs dried mustard
2 tps cumin
Olive oil
1 pound ground beef
Salt and pepper to taste

In a cast iron skillet, toast the red chiles, turning them when the get hot and the skin color has darkened somewhat. (I did it more off the smell — when it starts smelling like autumn in Albuquerque, turn those suckers). Once toasted, place the chiles in a bowl and cover with hot water just off the boil and allow to soak for five minutes.

In a large pot, throw in the diced tomatoes and about two tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of pinches of salt and let simmer on medium heat.

Meanwhile, slice up the onions and throw into the cast iron skillet with another couple of tablespoons of olive oil and cook until the onion is soft and nearly translucent. Add in the garlic and the ginger and cook on medium low for another couple of minutes, and then add to the pot with the tomatoes.

Dice up the chiles and add them to the tomato mixture.

Throw in the rest of the ingredients, give a good stir and allow to simmer.

Going back to the cast iron skillet, throw in the ground beef and brown, seasoning with garlic powder, onion powder and red chile powder. Once the beef is browned through, add to the tomato mixture and allow to simmer on low heat. At this point, taste the chili. If it doesn’t have quite enough heat, throw in a little red pepper, just to kick up the capsaicin content to reasonable levels.

Add in the hot dogs, pushing them to the bottom of the pot and covering with chili. Allow to cook for five to seven minutes longer. Serve with mustard and coleslaw.