I recently finished a wonderful YA novel called “Wicked Fox” by Kat Cho. One of my favorite things about it, though, for this foodie at heart, is the descriptions of Seoul food. Thanks to the glossary at the back, I got an even deeper description of each food item and have been making them in the weeks since.
I’m not too proud to admit that the kitchy date night dinner of corn dogs with fried potatoes caught my attention as much as the more traditional fare. Part of the appeal was figuring out exactly how it worked; then, once I knew, another part of the appeal was a whole new way to eat hot dogs surrounded by fried stuff.
There were not many recipes available from my usual sources. Even the (amazing) site I found to make the other traditional South Korean recipes didn’t include this more modern, more urban item. Thankfully, there’s YouTube.
The wonderful Aaron and Claire came through with several recipes, including one that was what I suspected the author was going for based on some additional research.
Now, the first thing to know is that these are not actually made with cornmeal, and that’s important because when the recipe says to roll the fried dough in sugar, it is slightly less unusual than it seems to American tastes. Since the dough more closely resembles bread than the sweeter corn batter, the sugar mostly just makes it taste more like American ideas of corn batter; that said, as a person who’s OK with slightly less sweet things, I tried them both ways and was totally fine without adding sugar.
I also found that I personally liked the way described in the video that skips the fried potatoes and instead uses a mix of panko and dried parsley as a coating. The crunch does it for me, but I also enjoyed the novelty of fried potatoes and “corn” dogs in the same dish.
While I mostly followed the recipes, one concession I did make is that since I wanted to sneak this into my small skillet recipes and recommend Cho’s book (not just for its Korean food items), I didn’t make them on sticks but instead cut the hot dogs and cheese sticks (!!) in half so I could try more variations and have them fit.
Here’s what I did, with the link to the direct Aaron and Claire YouTube video provided because I loved the descriptions:
Ingredients
- ~6 hot dogs, halved
- ~4 mozzarella cheese sticks, halved (and preferably frozen for about 10 minutes before cooking)
- ~1 to 1 ½ c. frozen potato cubes, if assortment preferred
- ~1 ½ c. panko
- 2 to 3 T. dried parsley
- 1 ⅔ c. (400 g) bread flour
- ½ c. (60 g) sugar, plus more for coating
- 2 ½ t. (10 g) salt
- 2 ¼ t. (8 g) active dried yeast
- 1 ¼ c. (300 ml) warm water
- Oil, for frying
- Ketchup, for serving
- Mustard, for serving
Directions
In a large bowl, mix together the bread flour, sugar, and salt. Stir to combine. In a small bowl, mix together the yeast and warm water, and let sit about 5 minutes, and then pour into the dry mixture until a sticky dough forms, adding more water if necessary.
Let the dough rise in a cool, dry place for about 2 hours.
After the 2 hours passes, mix together the panko and parsley on a plate. If using, place the frozen potatoes on a plate. If using (and recommended), place a little bit (~½ c. additional) of sugar on a small plate to coat the fried food.
Heat up oil in a 9 in. cast iron skillet (or whatever) until it reaches about 275 degrees.
Use your hands (or corn dog sticks, if you have them) to wrap the hot dog pieces and cheese stick halves, individually, in the dough. This is where it really helps to have seen the video to get a good idea of how to wrap the dogs and cheese sticks, but I also feel like after you do it a couple times, there’s not too many ways to catch the dough to wrap it around the meat and cheese.
Once dog/cheese is covered in dough, coat it in the panko or the potato or leave plain to your heart’s desire. Then, fry it for three to five minutes until nice and golden. Place on a paper towel to drain excess oil, and then coat in sugar before serving
Repeat with remaining items, and using the coatings as desired.
Drizzle with ketchup and mustard before serving, or use for dipping, and enjoy!
