Make the tastiest gourmet hot dogs on holiday

German-style sausages are brilliant convenience food. They travel well and cook in no time at all. Serve them as hot dogs or turn them into supper.

 

Have a hot dog party

Lay out the ingredients and let everyone build their own. Here are three great combo ideas:

1. Salty pretzel roll

• debreziner/cheese griller
• caramelised onions

 

2. German-style roll

• bratwurst
• German mustard
• sauerkraut

 

3. Soft sweet roll

• wienerwurst
• finely chopped gherkin
• mayonnaise
• crispy onion sprinkles

 

How to make caramelised onions

Add two tablespoons of butter and two thinly sliced onions to a medium-sized pot over medium-low heat and put the lid on. Cook for 15 minutes, then remove the lid and cook for 45 minutes, stirring regularly, until soft and caramelised. Add sea salt to taste. (Increase or decrease the quantity as you need. Just remember the basic ratio: one onion to one tablespoon butter.)

 

Which wurst?

Wursts are basically a preserved product. They’re either smoked or pre-cooked, which means they’re firmer than fresh sausages, won’t spoil as easily, have a longer shelf life and are quicker and easier to cook.

Debreziner
Mostly pork, thin but juicy, spicy and orange with paprika.

Wienewurst
Like a frankfurter but shorter, mostly pork and some beef, lightly smoked.

Bratwurst
Cold-smoked, made of pork and seasoned with white pepper and caraway.

Bockwurst
Thicker, mainly pork, some beef, sometimes with garlic, lightly smoked. Enjoy with Bock beer.

Frankfurter
Mostly pork and some beef, lightly smoked. Lay a poached pair over a plate of potato salad.

 

How to cook sausage

Browning makes all the difference to wurst, so turn them on the braai (a gas braai works particularly well) or pop them under the grill – just cut slits into the top to prevent splitting elsewhere. To fry them, prick the sausages on one side using a fork and rub with oil. Cook in a medium-hot pan until nicely browned.

 

The supper option

Pair your favourite sausage with a delicious side or two:

Warm Potato Salad

The trick is to use waxy potatoes and dress them while warm. Do it like the Germans and put out a ‘Wurst Parade’, an array of different kinds of sausage with hot potato salad on the side, German mustard and maybe even some sauerkraut.

Feeds 4 – 6

Ingredients 
1kg Mediterranean potatoes (available from Woolworths)
1 large onion, very finely chopped
140ml warm beef stock
50ml white wine vinegar
50ml sunflower oil
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
chives, finely chopped

Method
1. Put the potatoes in a large pot, cover with cold water and bring to the boil.
2. Reduce the heat to more like a simmer and cook the potatoes until just tender – they still need to keep their shape when sliced.
3. Drain the potatoes, leave to cool slightly and then peel off the skins.
4. Combine the onion, stock, vinegar and oil in a large bowl and season well.
5. While they are still warm, slice the potatoes thinly and add to the dressing. Toss gently but thoroughly and leave for 20 minutes to an hour for the flavour to develop.
6. Sprinkle with the chives and serve.

 

Red Cabbage

Make this ahead and store in a large glass jar for taking along on a wintry weekend away. Add grilled bratwurst, creamy mash and sweet German mustard for a hearty supper that’s low on effort.

Feeds 6

Ingredients
2T butter + 1T for serving
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 small red cabbages
4 Granny Smith apples
¼ cup red-wine vinegar
1 bottle fruity red wine
1 fresh bay leaf
sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
1 – 2T muscovado or brown sugar (optional)
2T finely chopped flatleaf parsley

Method
1. In a large enamelled cast-iron casserole, heat butter over medium heat until melted. Add the onions and stir until coated. Put the lid on and turn the heat to low. Leave to sweat for 15 minutes.
2. Remove the lid and cook, stirring regularly, for 45 minutes until soft and caramelised.
3. Quarter the cabbages, remove the tough outer leaves and cut out the core. Slice very thinly. Peel and core the apples, then grate. Add the cabbage and apple to the pot and stir well.
4. Add the vinegar, turn up the heat to medium-high and cook for one minute. Pour in the wine, add the bay leaf and season generously with salt. Replace the lid
and bring to the boil.
5. Turn down the heat to medium or medium-low so it is at a gentle simmer and cook for two hours, or place in the lower third of an oven preheated to 150˚C.
6. Remove the lid and simmer, uncovered, for 30 minutes (stirring regularly) until most of the liquid is evaporated and what is left is simply coating the cabbage and giving it gloss.
7. Season with salt and white pepper and, if necessary, the brown sugar to taste. Stir through butter and parsley, and serve.

 

Coleslaw Relish

If there’s leftover cabbage and parsley, make this to go alongside or on a hot dog. 1T red wine vinegar or lemon juice, freshly squeezed

Ingredients
3T extra-virgin olive oil
1 small red cabbage, cored and very thinly sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced
handful of parsley, very finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method
1. In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar and oil.
2. Add the cabbage, chilli and parsley and season generously.
3. Toss well and serve.

 

What wine?

When you’re making vinegar, acetic acid is a vital ingredient. For winos it’s a swear word. So this month, with an abundance of vinegary sides on offer, the best wine advice I can offer is: put down the corkscrew and step away from the table!

 

What beer?

Southern Germany’s most underrated ritual is breakfasting on pale veal weisswurst and a pretzel, washed down with a pint of weissbier. Before 12 noon. Wunderbar! To be weiss, the beer must be brewed from 50 per cent or more malted wheat and the rest from barley. The result is lighter in colour (weiss is German for ‘white’) than a traditional top-fermented ale, with all sorts of weird and wonderful things happening on the nose: fruity and spicy all at once, with hints of citrus.

You’ll have to decide whether you prefer unfiltered hefeweizen or its clear sibling, kristallweizen, but you can’t go wrong either way. Time was you had to scour the import shelf for a Paulaner, Erdinger or Franziskaner, but with our craft scene exploding there’s plenty of quality homegrown weissbier available.

 

My top tipples

CBC Amber Weiss (R35). The Cape Brewing Co makes some of the finest boutique beer in the country, but there’s something extra-special about this little beauty. Unlike their Krystal, Amber is a cloudy ‘hefe’, perfectly balanced, voluptuous and irresistible.

Jonker’s Weiss (R25) is a product of the award-winning Stellenbrau brewery, and it’s got the telltale banana esters and clove phenolics that beer aficionados will instantly recognise as the result of Bavaria’s king of yeasts, weihenstephan.

Carver’s Weiss (R18) is SAB’s entrant: slightly cloudy and creamy and relatively light for a weiss (perhaps a bit bitter for real fundis). You have to love the upside-down label on the back encouraging you to turn the bottle on its head and rouse the yeast.

Also read: 10 Cape craft beers to try out this summer

 

 

 

This article, Make the tastiest gourmet hot dogs on holiday, was originally posted on the Getaway Blog by Nikki Werner.