Hot dog dinner with three pickles.

I had some friends over yesterday for a boardgame afternoon. These usually turn into an evening of... well, more boardgames, and a hungry gamer is a grumpy gamer.

I decided to do hot dogs. Even for dinner parties I prefer to have as much done in advance as possible; my view being that if people are hanging out in my garden or sitting room, I should be amongst them. This is even more true for a boardgame lunch or supper.

Hot dogs require almost no effort whatsoever at the point of serving: all the preparation can be done hours before; all the assembly is done by the person going to eat it.

Also, I wanted to make pickles. Hot dogs need pickles.

Pickles

Quick pickles can be made on the day, but if I have the time - and forethought - I try to make them three or four days in advance to give the flavours time to develop. Quick pickles aren't meant to be kept for months, and in my experience always disappear within a couple of days, so I don't bother properly sterilising the containers. A standard soapy wash, rinsed in boiling water, has always been sufficient.

I make the basic liquid from a vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Epicurious, which has lots of great ideas for pickles, suggests equal parts vinegar and water. I always start with this, but I am inclined to top up the liquid using more vinegar. I don't usually want pickles to be actively salty, so I add it in small amounts right up to the point where I can distinguish the salt as a distinct flavour. If I overdo the salt, I dilute it with a little more vinegar and water. At least a small amount of sugar is necessary to balance the vinegar; obviously I add more for "sweet" pickles.

Naturally, quantities of liquid depend on how much you are planning on pickling. Simply because I own a set of American measuring cups, I'll usually start with a cup (237ml) each of water and vinegar, a quarter cup (55g) of caster sugar and a decent pinch of seasalt. These volumes won't leave you with a vast amount of unused pickling liquid. However it's the ratios, rather than amounts, that really matter. For a sweet pickle, I would start with a 1:1:1 ratio of water, vinegar and sugar. When topping up, I do it all by taste.

As a very general rule, I'll add dry herbs and spices to the pickling liquid; fresh to whatever is being pickled. I'm not sure whether it makes any difference, but I've always had good results this way.

I heat all the pickling liquid ingredients together on the hob, along with the dried herbs and spices, until the sugar and salt have completely dissolved. Tasting as you go along is essential, but avoid sniff the pickling liquid whilst it's cooking. Especially if it contains chilli. When I am happy with the taste, I will bring it up to a rolling boil for around a minute.

Making the pickling liquid is generally quick, so I prepare the ingredients that are being pickled first and put them into an airtight container. When the boiling liquid is poured over and the lid is sealed, the fruit or vegetables will soften in the heat and the flavours start to meld. Using an airtight container also reduces the chances of pickling liquid dripping down your fridge.

Sweet cabbage and mustard pickle

I sliced white cabbage into strips of around 5mm. I used cider vinegar, which I thought would go well with the cabbage. I added mustard seeds to the liquid, but in tasting I felt it was not sufficiently "mustardy", so I added a tablespoon of wholegrain. I decided to balance the bitterness of the cabbage by making the pickling liquid sweet.

The cabbage became reasonably tender in the pickling process, but cooking it in the boiling liquid for a minute would have given a softer texture. It worked well scattered inside the hot dog. I liked the concept of adding mustard through a pickle rather than a sauce. The combination of bitterness and sweetness worked very well.

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Spicy tomato and garlic pickle

I used a mixture of red wine and sherry vinegars, which I think work really well with tomatoes. I kept the sugar to a minimum, and added lots of dried crushed chilli. I sliced garlic cloves lengthways to around 2mm thick and cooked them in the boiling liquid for a few minutes until tender. I poured this mixture over whole cherry tomatoes.

I really liked the effect of the spicy pickled garlic scattered over the sausage. The tomatoes tasted good, but I don't think they worked so well in the context of a hot dog; larger, deseeded sliced tomatoes which could be laid flat along the bun would have been better.

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Cucumber dill pickle

This was a pretty standard hot dog-style dill pickle. I sliced baby cucumbers length-ways and mixed in finely chopped fresh dill. I used white wine vinegar for a neutral taste. I wanted these to sit between the sweet cabbage pickle and the spicy tomatoes; so I added a moderate amount of sugar - enough to taste, but keeping the balance on the side of savoury.

They kept their crunch well, the shape worked perfectly for a hot dog and they were the favourite by general consensus.

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Extras

Alongside the pickles, I made two mayonnaise sauces.

For the first, I took a a large bulb of garlic and sliced it thinly. I removed the leaves from a 30g bunch of parsley and chopped them as finely as possible. I stirred this through a couple of tablespoons of mayonnaise, adding more mayo until it became "garlicky mayonnaise" rather than "mayonnaisey garlic". I added lemon juice and salt until I was happy with the taste.

For the second, I chopped fresh red chillis to around 1-2mm thick. I added them to the mayonnaise and adjusted the salt and acidity to taste. I used lime juice, rather than lemon, as I prefer the combination of lime and chilli.

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I sliced red onions very finely (see photo of the translucence) and gently fried them in olive oil and salt until they became a caramelised tangle. Finally, just because hot dogs should have lettuce, I shredded an iceberg.

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cooked onions

lettuce

All of this was done by three o clock, allowing several hours of uninterrupted gaming before dishing up. The only thing left to do was plate up the bread rolls and microwave the all-American, super processed sausages. Which, if I say so myself, I did with aplomb.

My hot dog:

I swear there is a sausage in there somewhere. But it was really all about the pickles.