Avocado Corndogs

We had a lot of fun last year at Le Cigare Volant with this dish.  Unfortunately, it was a lot of work!  In order to be able to push avocado through the thick corndog batter, we froze blanks of avocado meat, shaped with a cutter.  We would batter and par-fry them, then re-fry them to order.   It was a pain, and the quality suffered.  

Additionally, we could only prepare a limited amount every day, because of the time involved in thawing the centers.

This video shows how we used to form the blanks.

I knew that if we were to run this dish at Palo Alto Grill, it would need to be more streamlined, to accommodate the higher volume of customers and raise the quality of the 'Dogs.

Back to the drawing board, i tried some crazy stuff:

Seems pretty cool, right??



Well, its a f#$%-ton of work.



And in the end, they come out pretty shitty.













Ah well, we'll come back to those guys.  First, the Chipotle Mustard!



Chipotles are delicious, though they can be a bit spicy.  We wanted to accent the flavor in a way that would downplay the spicy character of the peppers.  In order to do this, we analyzed the other flavors in chipotles and found them to have a raisin-like quality, from the drying.  They're also smoked, so we made a smoked raisin puree, to add to the mustard for flavor, with low spiciness.

First, the raisins are smoked over wood chips.

Sometimes, you need to break out the big guns.

The raisins are then soaked

until plump.

Much of their cloying
sweetness drains
away with the water

To this is added a puree of chipotle.

As well as whole grain mustard

That's Chipotle Mustard.











To make the batter, mix with a whisk:

1 cup Cornmeal
1 cup Flour
3 Eggs
1 Tbs Baking Powder
2 cups Milk
Pinch Salt and Sugar

Its best if this is allowed to rest under refrigeration overnight.







For the surprisingly low-tech solution to the avocado blank, peel and roughly dice several avocados.  Season with lime, salt and cumin.

Soak gelatin sheets, 1.5 per avocado.

Melt this gelatin, and mix with the avocado.

Refrigerate it until set.

Turn out the set avocado 

Punch small "sausages" of the avocado and skewer.

These definitely have the structural integrity

to hold up to the cornmeal batter.

Fry at 375 F.

Garnish with cilantro (or whatever you've got) and chipotle mustard.

Cool Beans!

Coming soon...again...!