How to “funkify” a corn dog? (file under Executive Chef’s Special Projects)

So due to a strange yet wonderful confluence of events, time and space creating some kitchen vacuum, I have had the luxury of three days off in a row. And let me say that I needed these three days just to bring myself back to normal. My body was worn out, tired. Both hands are calloused and worn, dry and cracked with little nicks and cuts all over them. My feet are balled up and sore from standing on my feet for endless hours each day. My back is in a ludicrous amount of pain. BUT I WOULDN’T CHANGE IT FOR THE WORLD. I love what I do. And the price I have to pay is just that… the price… And as Bob Barker and friends would say the price is right… for me.

So I must say that I was a little surprised yesterday when I got a facebook message from Executive Chef saying that he had a down and dirty project which was time sensitive and asking whether or not I would like to collaborate on it. OUI CHEF my only response. Both because I was glad to be asked to help AND because it is Chef!

He is working on a project relating to carnival food and how to make it a little “jazzier,” or funkier. Specifically as it relates to corndogs. How do you funkify a corndog. After all a corndog is something that is rather pedestrian and familiar to anyone who has ever seen the worn out rides and faces of the carnie phenomenon. But that’s another post in itself.

A corn dog is (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_dog ) quite simply a hotdog coated in a simple batter and deep fried on a stick. The first thing that went through my mind was just how far can we take this. I worked on it for several hours yesterday and today before finally sending Executive Chef and email asking him that very question. His response was prompt and what I had hoped for, something to the effect of; “Go as far as you’d like. That’s how we work things like this out.”

Armed with vim and vigour and a head full of fantastical ideas of carnie grandeur I set out to considering what it was for and how I could somehow twist it into something special. Of course there is the obvious, lets shoot for lobster. Everyone immediately goes to lobster, I’m not sure quite why. But then I started thinking to myself, if someone else can get there I don’t want to do it. I want to come up with something original. I want to put this head of mine to good use and possibly create something so cool that even Executive Chef says; “WOW, that’s a great idea.” That to me would be like wining the F1 Championship beating out Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher at the same time. Or like winning the Stanley Cup or like knocking out Mike Tyson in his prime. In my world, in what I do, those are the only equivalents I can think of that are so grand.

A corn dog? But funkified?

So I started to consider things that would not normally be considered tubular. After all one would expect a corndog to be tubular. Thus my first consideration was to think about things that might be a good juxtaposition. Not just for the sake of juxtaposition either because I’ve watched with great horror and dismay over the last few years as what appear to be kitchen idiot savants and dilettantes did things differently, just for the sake of well, different. That is not enough to satisfy my culinary wonder. And not nearly enough to satisfy my thirst to create something amazing.

I started assembling a list of things that I might want to use in the creation of this dish. I started, most naturally, with the protein. What proteins could I use that would be wonderful. But also considering mouth feel and texture. As such the list of proteins I came up with in no particular order are;

Chorizo Sausage
Crawfish
Foie Gras
Duck
Bison
Caribou
Eel
Sea Urchin
Venison
Rabbit
Wild Boar
Emu
Caviar
Moose
Squab

And my one non protein possibility ICE CREAM!

After assembling the list of proteins that I wanted to use I started to visualize the dish. How it would look. In this case I have the basic format already. It is a corndog so I do have a basic outline of what it should look like or at least resemble. This makes my job a little bit easier.

Now I start dreaming of all the fantastic combinations that I can assemble with my desired proteins. I start thinking of classic combinations but instead decide to start scouring my collected knowledge, cookbooks and the Internet for possible combinations that would be good to my mind. The beauty of this project for me is that it is conceptual. I need to first identify the concept and then break it down into various elements that make sense to me.

So now armed with the proteins that I want to use or rather could use and the knowledge that I can step outside (hopefully comfortably) the classical combinations I fancifully start imagining and searching out ideas.

The ideas currently are really conceptual and at this moment as I write this I am trying to figure out how to take them from that to the recipe stage.

The following are the ideas;
Bison Sausage with a cherry ketchup and black apricot relish

Rabbit Sausage with port reduction ketchup and sweet onion relish

Smoked Wild Boar Sausage with apple chutney and spiced ketchup

Duck Sausage with a pinot noir blueberry mustard and Foie Gras relish

Eel with a Wasabi Dijon and ginger relish

Maple Caribou sausage with juniper mustard

Corned Moose with a smoked relish

Emu sausage with teriyaki ketchup

Caviar with a champagne brioche crust

Squab with a roasted garlic relish

Sea Urchin with a tempura crust and Wasabi salsa

Ice cream with a crushed praline crust, strawberry puree ketchup and mango relish

Now I need to work the ideas and see how I would execute them. I will be back with another post shortly, once I have figured out how to make these workable, and short of that, refining the ideas to make them better and workable.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said; “All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

Are you experimenting? Are you dreaming and inspired?

A la prochaine

SDM