Eating Out The Fresnokie Dog

Indeed friends, I have been deep in the bowels of my culinary lab, toiling and fulminating. To what end you ask? To deafeningly blare out “Fresno” in hot dog form. And maybe put a little bit of a personal spin on the dish as well. So being an Oklahoman-American, Okie if you will…I’ve got to represent my slack jawed tobacco chewing kin. And if you’ve ever seen the travesty that is an Oki-Dog in Los Angeles, there’s a perfectly imperfect canvas to make a worthwhile statement with.

The Oki Dog is two hotdogs in a tortilla with pastrami, chili and fixins. You can see what I’m saying here. But like throwing a bucket of house paint at some hack’s godawful painting with every intention of starting over, there are still some elements we can be true to and make a good dog.

First off, ditch the pastrami. Pastrami is lovely, but save it for the deli. But chili and hot dogs go well together. Especially a really simple meat’n’juice chili like you get at Pink’s. One where the chili peppers are the main flavor component and the top of the pot has a nice inch layer of bright red grease. But where to really hit home the concept of Fresno? What is Fresno? Fresno is friggin’ HOT is what Fresno is. So a Fresno pepper relish is a natch. Only one problem, they’re out of season!

That okay though, we can adapt! Instead we’ll grab some of the still available varieties and do a little monkeying around to get a nice flavor and a mean burn. And of course we’ll make our own chili powder from scratch using 8 or 9 varieties of pepper. Kick in a little cheese and it’ll be perfect!

And here it is! In all it’s Fresnokie glory!

                                                

There it is! Chili rubbed weenie, homemade chili, fresh pepper relish, pepper jack and cotija cheese all wrapped up in a tortilla.  It's everything a proud culinary maniac could hope for in a creation.  3 creations really, all married up into a complete package of piquant weinery chili cheesey goodness.  And if that don't say Fresno, then I don't know what does!

-Pook