Sabrett's Onion Sauce

Sabrett hot dogs are a New York City specialty. You can get these dogs at push carts all around the city.
One of the favorite toppings is a sweet and tangy onion sauce. I wanted to make this sauce so I looked around on the web and found several "clone recipes", here is one that I came up with based on a few that sounded good.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, 4 cups copped
3 cups water
1 tbsp corn starch, dissolved in a little cold water
1 tbsp packed brown sugar
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp of crushed red pepper, or more if you like it spicy
1/4 cup white vinegar

Directions
Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat and add the onions, saute for about 5 minutes until onions are tender but not caramelized. Add the brown sugar, tomato paste, salt and red pepper. Stir and cook for a few minutes to cook off the raw taste of the tomato paste. Add the water and vinegar and simmer for 1 hour. Add the cornstarch while stirring. Increase the heat and bring to a boil, once thickened spoon onion sauce over hot dog with spicy brown mustard.

NY Style Cheese Cake

Ingredients 

for the crust
3/4 c flour
3 tbls sugar
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
6 tbls unsalted butter
1 slightly beaten egg yoke
1/4 tsp vanilla

for the filling
3 8-oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp vanilla
2 tbls flour
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 egg yoke
1/4 c milk

To prepare the crust, combine 3/4 c flour, 3 tbls sugar, and 1/2 tsp lemon juice.
Cut the butter into the flour mixture until crumbly. Cut in the egg yoke and 1/4 tsp vanilla.
Pat 1/3 of the dough onto the bottom of an 8" cheese cake pan or springform pan.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 7 minutes until golden brown; cool.
Attach the bottom to pan and pat remaining dough onto the sides to a height of 1 1/2 inches.

For the filling, in a large mixing bowl beat together the cream cheese, 1/2 tsp lemon juice, 1/4 tsp
vanilla. Mix the 1 c sugar with the 2 tbls flour and 1/4 tsp salt and slowly add to the cream cheese mixture.
Add the 2 eggs and 1 egg yoke all at once and mix well. Add the 1/4 c milk mix until well combined.

Pour filling into crust lined pan and bake in a 450 degree oven for 10 minutes then reduce the oven
to 300 and bake for 50 to 55 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean.
Let cool then chill for a couple of hours before eating.

Here's a video showing just how to make the best cheese cake you will ever eat.

Salsa Saturday from Oct 09 2010

I kept hearing commercials on the radio for this local Austin salsa so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a fresh salsa
called Ana's Salsa. It's available in the Austin area at HEB, you will find it in the refrigerated produce section.
I first tried the medium hot version and didn't like it at all, too much of a raw onion and garlic flavor. I decided to give the mild version a chance and it was really good. It's made with Serrano peppers instead of Jalapenos, which I really like. The mild version didn't have the harsh raw onion and garlic flavor, very fresh tasting.

Salsa Saturday from May 15, 2010

I started uploading salsa Saturday videos to youtube back in May. Basically to keep track of the ones I liked and the ones I didn't. Here is the first one. Reviewed are three jarred salsas, Absolutely Picante, Hot On The Red, and San Antonio Farms. I'm not sure about the availability of these around the county. My favorite here is the San Antonio Farms, ironically it's made in Ohio.

Coffee Plants

This is one of two coffee plants I bought earlier this year. Originally they were on the front porch in direct sunlight. I had to move them to the back patio with filtered sunlight. They were getting burned up in the direct sun. Since moving they have much more new growth. They get watered every other day and fed with every other week with Medina Hasta Gro. It's a great organic fertilizer, I use it on my tomatoes and peppers as well.  It will be several years before these plants start producing fruit. In the mean time they are very attractive plants and look nice on the patio.

Enjoying this mornings coffee

Enjoying some fresh roasted Ethiopia Organic Yirga Cheffe, Koke Coop this morning. This was roasted to a City+ and it tastes wonderful. I'm drinking this from a vintage 1970's FireKing coffee mug. If you ever see these at garage sales or thrift stores pick them up, they are worth a lot of money.

Dylan's AirSpeed shoe commercial

This is a video we shot the other day for Dylan's shoe sponsor AirSpeed. They sent him a newly released style of shoes and wanted him to shoot some pictures and video. He directed and edited it, I was the cameraman. He recently started his dream job, working at a local skateboard shop. Enjoy!

"The Sherwood" Commercial from Dylan Jones on Vimeo.