Discovering corn dogs

Pardon my ignorance, but until recently, I never knew why corn dogs were called such.  Where I came from, these were mostly called "hotdogs on a stick" and the batter used to coat the hotdogs were not much different from pancake batter (maybe only a little bit thicker).  This was how I've been cooking our version of corn dogs ever since. 

But having discovered from a google search that corn dogs actually had cornmeal (I should have known!), I will never go back to cooking these the old way again.  Cornmeal seems to be an unusual find in Australian supermarkets.  I was lucky I found an organic one in the health food aisle of Coles.  Polenta seems to be more readily available.  I wonder if it will work the same way?  It's also cornmeal, isn't it?  It does look exactly the same....

Aren't these just beautiful?

I don't know if the recipe I used is an authentic corn dog recipe but who cares?  We love, love, love these.  I usually use cocktail franks instead of the bigger franks or hotdogs because they are easier to handle and also because it saves me from using so much oil for deep frying.

Try them!

CORN DOGS (adapted from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

1 cup maize (corn) meal

1 cup plain flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 cup white sugar

4 teaspoons baking powder

1 egg

1 cup milk

vegetable oil for deep frying

cornflour for coating

32 skinless cocktail franks (2 packs of 310 grams each)

32 small bamboo skewers

Procedure:

1.  In a medium bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, pepper, sugar, and baking powder.  Stir in egg and milk.

2.  Meanwhile, preheat oil in a deep saucepan over medium heat. 

3.  Dry off the franks on paper towels then toss them in cornflour, coating them completely.  (This is necessary to ensure that the batter will stick to the franks.) Insert a bamboo skewer into each frank.

4.  Scoop some of the cornmeal batter into a small, narrow glass or cup.  Dip the frank into the batter and swirl to coat it evenly.  Let the excess drip off.

5.  Deep fry 2 or 3 corndogs at a time until lightly browned.  Drain on paper towels.