Author Notes
Last year for our anniversary, my husband and I treated ourselves to a dinner at Kyma - Washgington DC's consistently rated number one restaurant. While we were there, we loved the whimsical riff on a DC locals favorite - the half smoke. They created a mini half smoke and served it on a brioche roll. What's not to like? The half smoke (mainly attributed to a great DC civil rights landmark - Ben's Chili Bowl) is a half-pork and half-beef spicy hot dog like sausage that is steamed over a hot griddle. If you can't get a half smoke you can order one online or you could use a good local brand spicy hot dog or lightly smoked sausage. —meganvt01
Ingredients
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4
links of half smokes, sliced 1/3 inch thick
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2
loaves of brioche
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3
high quality dill pickles (the refrigerated kind that have a great snap)
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3-4 tablespoons
spicy/strong dijon mustard
Directions
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Slice your brioche loaf into normal size sandwich slices. Use a cookie cutter or a glass that is about 2 inches in diameter and cut rounds from the brioche. Lightly toast the rounds in a toaster - just letting them brown very slightly.
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In a skillet over medium heat, place a batch of half smoke slices in and let them sit for 5 minutes. They should get a really beautiful caramelization on them and render out a good amount of fat. Flip the slice and cook for another 3 minutes, checking for caramelization. Keep the first batch warm in a 200 degree oven on a baking sheet, covered in foil while you cook the rest.
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Brunoise your pickles (very tiny, tiny dice) or as nice little squares as you can get.
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Take a brioche round and top with a warm half smoke. Place 1/2 teaspoon of mustard (or more or less depending on your taste and how strong your mustard is) and decorate the top with a sprinkling of pickles.
After spending years in school while working full time, I'm happy to finally have my evenings pursuing my other passion, cooking! I have a 4 year old boy and a husband that are both adventurous eaters and supportive tasters. I spend a good bit of my vacation travel preparation researching local and regional foods and my friends all make fun of my food obsession.
I've always been pretty confident with my techniques cooking from recipes but I am enjoying Food52's challenge of putting those techniques to work for my own versions of my favorite foods. I love to learn and the group of people that contribute to this site are a great resource.
As an Annapolis native, I love to cook with our local produce and seafood whenever possible. I try to support our community of fisherman, farmers, other food producers and chefs as much as possible.
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