Last weekend, we defeated rain and spread happiness throughout Brick Lane with Hot Dog hero Big Apple Hot Dogs as part of his quasi-competitive food blogger meetup #BlogEATBlog.
We didn’t think it would be worthwhile doing anything too subtle or off-brand, so here’s our down and dirty entry. It’s a four element topping: cheese sauce with bacon, an In-n-Out style ‘Animal’ sauce, chopped pickle and bacon crumbs. Here’s the recipe for the cheese bit.
The end result looked like this on the day, so here’s the recipe so you too can make it at home. It goes great with nachos.
Ingredients
This makes about 1.5 litres. Which is way more than you probably want.
- Six tablespoons of flour
- At least a pint of full fat milk
- Frank’s Hot Sauce
- Chipotle Tabasco
- Kraft cheese
- About a dozen slices of American cheese
- A pack of streaky bacon (we like Oscar Mayer for this recipe)
- Two dill pickles
Method
Lob six tablespoons of flour and a cup of milk into a bowl and mix until smooth. Lumpy sauce is bogus.
Take your bacon, lay it on baking tray and bung that in a preheated oven at about 180-200 degrees. Lowish and slowish, since we’re after crispness here folks.
While the bacon is crisping, put the flour and milk mixture into a saucepan and bring it up to a gentle simmer. While it’s coming up to temperature, chop your Kraft block into nice manageable chunks.
When the flour and milk have combined into a nice runny sauce, drop the cheese in. It’s best to introduce it in batches. Remember, Kraft is not real cheese, so it will melt slowly. Don’t turn the heat up, keep it low and slow.
Once the Kraft has disintegrated, throw your American cheese slices in. They’ll melt much quicker and change the mixture colour in a most pleasing way.
Keep it hot and check for a nice gloopy consistency. It should look like this:
Now, grab your two best friends.
Generously apply Frank’s first. Mix well and check flavour. Frank’s adds salt, flavour and colour. So this is up to you.
Do exactly the same with your Tabasco.
Dice your pickles, then dice your bacon (which you should take out the oven about now).
Introduce half of your bacon into the cheese sauce.
Mix it all up and you’re done!
To make the dog, line the bun with animal sauce, insert your frank, dollop a healthy amount of cheese sauce on top and finish with the diced pickle and bacon.
