Chilean Hotdogs: Completo Chileno

These large sandwiches are common fast food and street food in Chile, but they aren't truly "fast food" at home, unless you've already got everything in the refrigerator and all you have to do is toast the buns briefly and cook the hotdogs. Chileans often use homemade mayonnaise* for their "completo" (some make their own bread rolls too). These hotdogs are boiled, not grilled or fried. "Salsa Americana" is a condiment sauce or relish of onion, carrot, cucumber and seasonings often used by Chileans, especially for a "completo."** Sauerkraut is not always used, but many Chileans love it on hotdogs, although the avocado is then "supposed to be" omitted, but since both toppings are popular, many people opt for both avocado*** and sauerkraut.

 

I seldom buy mayonnaise or mustard in squeeze bottles, so I use a spoon for each, and for the salsa Americana and mashed avocado.

Ingredients (4 servings):

 

4 hotdogs 

4 bread rolls

1/3 cup chopped fresh tomato

1/4 cup finely chopped white onion

1 large avocado, mashed with a teaspoon or 2 of lime juice (or lemon juice) and a pinch of salt

salsa Americana (see link below for the recipe)

sauerkraut

mayonnaise (it's my understanding, Chileans don't skimp on adding mayo)

(optional) mustard

(optional) ketchup 

 

In a skillet or a pan, use enough water to completely cover the hotdogs, then bring the water to a boil; adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer and cook the hotdogs until well heated through. 

Heat a skillet over medium heat and open the hotdog buns/rolls and place them down to toast them briefly. You can certainly put the various toppings (condiments) onto the hotdogs however you choose, but I prefer to spread the bread rolls with the mashed avocado, then I add some chopped tomato and chopped onion, then some salsa Americana topped with sauerkraut, and then some mustard and ketchup, and finally the mayonnaise. Ah... you'll need some napkins. 

 

* To make your own mayonnaise, here is the link to the recipe: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/06/homemade-mayonnaise.html 

 

** For the recipe for "Salsa Americana," here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2022/06/chilean-salsa-americana-american-sauce.html 

 

*** A Latino acquaintance mixes his mashed avocado with lime juice, so that's what I used here, but you can certainly use lemon juice instead, but it will be a bit more tart. The thing is, if you've never used avocado, it has to have some acidic component, or it will begin to turn dark; so, either lemon, lime or vinegar can be used. When I was at my friend's house, he told me the avocado needed acid, but then he raised hell with me when his flashlight wouldn't work, and he said you don't use flashlight battery acid. That scolding was bad enough, and I won't even tell you how mad he was when his car wouldn't run; so, no, you don't use acid from your car's battery either. Damn, I wish these people would say what they mean. hahaha   

 

 

WORD HISTORY:

Complete-This prefixed word means, "fulfilled, lacking nothing, finished," and the main part of the word is distantly related to "fill" and to "full," both words from the Germanic roots of English, and it is related to the main parts of "replenish" and "supply," and to "plenty," all Latin-derived words borrowed by English from French, and to "depletion," another Latin-derived word, but borrowed by English directly from Latin. The "com" prefix goes back to Indo European "kom" which meant, "beside, near, together," and this gave Latin both "con" and "com," with the idea of "together, with," and the "com-" and "con-" forms sometimes were reduced to "co-." The main part of the word goes back to Indo European "pel/pleh," which had the notion of "sufficient, full, enough, complete." This gave Latin "plere," meaning "to fill," and with the prefix, "complere," meaning "to fill up, to fill out, to fulfill." A participle form of the word was "completus," also used as an adjective, and from this, French had the adjective "complet," meaning "full, total." English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1300s as "compleet/complet," from some combined borrowing from Latin and French. The adjective spawned the verb "completen" circa 1400, and this then became "(to) complete," meaning "to fulfill, to make whole or full, to totally finish."  

Homemade Mayonnaise

There is nothing wrong with buying mayonnaise at the supermarket or at your corner store, but if you want to make your own mayonnaise, it is simple to do, but it does require a raw egg. If using raw eggs makes you worry about safety, you can pasteurize the egg or eggs yourself by heating water in a pan to 140 degrees F (and yes, you'll need a thermometer, see further). Add the egg or eggs in a single layer and leave them in the hot water for 3 to 3 1/2 minutes (only add the eggs to the water when it has reached 140 degrees F, and that begins the time keeping). Remove them immediately and put them into cool water. You will need a thermometer, because if the water gets much hotter than 140, the eggs will cook; so, you will need to monitor the temperature the entire time. There are pasteurized eggs sold in supermarkets, and while most of these are pasteurized egg whites, you can find pasteurized whole eggs, and you use them just as regular non-pasteurized eggs. Pasteurized eggs are more expensive, but likely most buyers of these pasteurized eggs aren't using them in large quantity, as you only really need them for things like mayonnaise, some salad dressings, eggnog, certain sauces and meringue; after all, we don't really need pasteurized eggs, since we much more typically fully cook eggs anyhow, either to be eaten in some cooked manner themselves (fried, sauteed, boiled), or as part of some recipe, like custard, or we bake them as part of recipes, like in some breads and cakes. In many parts of the world, eggs are NOT kept refrigerated, but in the U.S., we buy eggs from refrigerated cases in shops and supermarkets and then we put them into our refrigerators at home. When I was a kid, some small markets (like produce markets or what are now called 'farmers' markets') sold eggs that were not refrigerated, as did some truck-based businesses, where a guy traveled the streets and alleyways shouting what items he had for sale, often also shouting out the price or specials he was offering. Many, if not most, of these people were farmers selling their own goods, or they were directly connected with farmers for the items they sold; that is, the farmers directly supplied their products, like eggs, butter, milk or cheese.   

 

As for the oil, there are lots of choices: vegetable oil, corn oil and canola oil are all good, but you can also try avocado oil (I haven't tried this yet myself) or peanut oil. If you like more flavor, you can replace all or some of whatever oil you're using with extra virgin olive oil. 

I use a stick blender to make mayonnaise (also called an immersion blender). If you have a glass jar (like from a large jar of jelly or jam, with a wide enough opening for the stick blender), that should be ideal, or you can use the container that often comes with a stick blender, or a good, sturdy glass measuring cup is another good choice; as a matter of fact, that's what I used when I made the mayonnaise for this article, and I then covered it with plastic wrap. 

 

One other thing, you can add sugar if you'd like, but it is optional. The lemon juice, vinegar and mustard add tartness to the mayonnaise (the lemon juice and vinegar also help in preserving the mayo), but if you want to lessen the sourness, as I commonly do, use the sugar. 

 

For a long time I did what many people do in making mayonnaise; that is, I added the ingredients, BUT I added the oil a little at a time (I also used a small food processor/blender), literally drop by drop. I'm not sure what I thought would happen if I added all of the oil and if I used a stick blender ... maybe the mayonnaise police would get me and as punishment I'd be condemned to eat baloney sandwiches without ketchup for a period of time? (I'd REALLY scream loudly!)    

 

Ingredients (for 1 cup +):

 

1 whole egg, recommended to be room temperature

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 teaspoons white vinegar

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard 

good pinch of salt

(optional) 1 teaspoon sugar

1 cup oil 

If you keep eggs in the refrigerator, remove the egg or eggs and let it/them sit out for just a few minutes to come to near room temperature. I sometimes rinse eggs from the refrigerator under some warm (not hot) water to help speed up the process. Add all of the ingredients to the container you are using, including all of the oil, and let everything sit for about 45 seconds. Put the stick blender into the container so that it goes clear to the bottom. Turn the blender on and keep it firmly at the bottom until the ingredients thicken up a great deal, then you can move the stick blender up and down to get all of the ingredients mixed in thoroughly. When the mayo thickens completely, it's done. Understand, blending the ingredients into mayonnaise won't take place in ten seconds, or likely not in 25 seconds, so be prepared to hold the stick blender until the mayo thickens up well. My experience is about 1 minute total, but admittedly, I have an older stick blender, which I bought with economy in mind. (So Randy, you mean it's a cheap stick blender?... Ah, you didn't have to be so blunt, but YES!)

Homemade mayonnaise on some sliced tomato ...

WORD HISTORY:

Prove -"Prove" is closely related to "probe," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from Latin, and it is related to "probable," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English from French, to "probate" (both the noun and verb forms), both Latin words borrowed directly from Latin, and to "future," another Latin-derived word borrowed from Latin-based French, and it is distantly related to the verb "(to) be," a word from the Germanic roots of English. "Prove" is from a compound Indo European form "per-bhuho," which had the notion "to be to the fore, to be in front." Indo European "per" meant, "before, in front of, forward;" thus also figuratively, "first, main, chief;" thus also, "superior, excellent." The "bhuho" part is a form from Indo European "bheu," which had the notion, "to exist, to be;" thus also, "to grow." This gave Latin the adjective "probus," meaning "superior, worthy, upstanding," and this produced the Latin verb "probare," meaning, "to show (something) to be of value, or to be good;" thus also, "to demonstrate;" that is, "to test in order to show/demonstrate value or goodness in something"),  also, "to commend;" thus, "to approve." This was borrowed by some Germanic languages, including Old English, which had the verb "profian," meaning "to try, to test, to show goodness or benefit of something," but also, "to hold in high regard." Meanwhile, Latin "probare" (see above) passed to Latin-based Old French as "prover" (also as "pruver), meaning, "to prove, to show or demonstrate abilities or capabilities of something;" thus also, "to evaluate." "Apparently" the Old French form influenced changes in the Old English form to produce "proven/pruven," circa 1200, with the same general meanings, and as the conjugation of English verbs changed 250 to 300 years later, the form became "(to) prove."       

French Remoulade Sauce

Remoulade sauce seems to have started in France, but exactly when it started is a difficult question to answer, as I've seen references to the 1600s, the 1700s and the 1800s. The base of remoulade sauce is mayonnaise, and the French version has spawned a variety of remoulade sauces, including two very distinctive types, one in Denmark, and one in the United States, more precisely in Louisiana,* a state that has French influences, owing to the fact that it was once a possession of France; and indeed, it was named after French King Louis XIV.

Ingredients (1 cup +):

1 cup mayonnaise

1 heaping teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon chopped chervil or parsley

1 tablespoon chopped tarragon

1 tablespoon chopped capers

1 heaping tablespoon chopped cornichons (small pickles)

1 anchovy fillet, finely chopped

1 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together very well in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 2 hours before using.

* For my recipe for Louisiana style remoulade, here is the link: https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/08/louisiana-remoulade-sauce.html

 

WORD HISTORY:
Session-This word is related, through Indo European, to "sit," "seat" and "settle," all from the Germanic roots of English, and it is more closely related to "siege," a Latin based word borrowed by English from French. It goes back to Indo European "sed," which meant, "to sit." This gave Latin "sedere," which also meant "to sit, to calm down, to settle down in a place." Its past participle base, "sess," gave Latin the noun "sessio," meaning, "the act of sitting," "a seat;" thus also, "the act of sitting for a meeting to discuss matters." Its dative, accusative, ablative and genitive case forms, as well as it plural form in all cases had the base "session," with various endings. It passed into Latin-based Old French as "session," with the meaning, "a sitting for court, a sitting for a discussion meeting;" thus, "a sitting for an assembly or a committee." English borrowed the word in the latter part of the 1300s with much the same meanings; that is, "a sitting for a regular or periodic court or a sitting to discuss and, or, to legislate on some issue or issues." 

Louisiana Remoulade Sauce

Remoulade is a dipping sauce, often used for fried foods like fish, seafood and batter fried vegetables, but it is also used as a spread for sandwiches. Remoulade sauce, also often shortened to just remoulade, is a French sauce based upon mayonnaise, but with added chopped ingredients: capers, cornichons and herbs. The sauce's history is tough to determine, as there were various sauces of similar content and used in France dating back to like the 1400s and 1500s, but by the 1700s the sauce most closely resembling the modern version seems to have come into it's own. "Tartar sauce" can really be considered a type of remoulade. While remoulade originated in France, it has numerous variations, including "Americanized" versions, with an especially spicy type from Louisiana perhaps being the best known. This is my version of the Louisiana style remoulade.

Ingredients:

1 cup mayonnaise (low fat type is fine)
1 tablespoon smooth brown mustard
1 tablespoon whole grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed in the palm of your hand
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed in the palm of your hand
1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed in the palm of your hand
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon onion, minced
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper (or ground black pepper)
1 tablespoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper(or other ground hot red pepper)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon horseradish (freshly grated or from a jar)
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon hot sauce (in the American South, especially in Louisiana, they "often" use Tabasco sauce)

Mix all ingredients together well in a bowl, cover and refrigerate for 2 hours (or longer) before serving.

WORD HISTORY:
Scuttle-English has more than one word of this spelling. This is the noun meaning, in somewhat more modern times, "a type of bucket for carrying and holding coal." The ancient history of the word is shaky, but it likely goes back to Indo European "skei," which meant, "to split, to cut off." This produced Indo European "skouto/skoito," meaning, "flat piece of wood, shield." This gave Latin "scutra," meaning, "tray, platter," and this then produced the diminutive form "scutella," meaning, "small bowl or dish," also, "shallow drinking bowl, or leather pouch" (in the past both often used for alcoholic drinks). This was borrowed into West Germanic, but it's unclear to me which West Germanic dialect or dialects borrowed it first, but whatever the case, the term spread, with Old English having "scutel," meaning, "dish, platter," which then became "scuttel," along with the meaning, "dish or basket used to sift grain." The spelling then became "scuttle" and the "dish/basket" idea was used for such a device to carry coal, which in the mid 1800s had become a bucket type container. Relatives in the other Germanic languages: German has "Schüssel" (bowl, dish),^ Low German has "Schötel" (dish), Dutch "schotel" (dish, saucer). Old Norse borrowed the word from English as "skutill" (dish, drinking vessel).

^ Long ago, a sound shift often changed many "t" sounds in certain circumstances in Germanic dialects to an "s" sound in many high dialects, which is the form that prevailed and thus continued into modern times in what is now standard German.

Aioli, Is It Garlic Mayonnaise?

"Aioli," and there are variations in the term by language or dialect ("allioli" in some areas of Spain, for instance),* is a general term for a sauce common in the western Mediterranean area of eastern Spain, southern France and northwestern Italy. There are "generally" two types of aioli; one of olive oil combined with garlic, which "seems" to be the traditional sauce, and the other, a combination of olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and egg (either whole eggs or just yolks), now often simply with prepared mayonnaise substituted for the raw egg. The traditional aioli method involved crushing cloves of garlic with a mortar and pestle, then gradually adding olive oil while stirring the mixture until it formed a sauce, with some adding a little lemon juice, others omitting it. Nowadays a blender or food processor is used to make the sauce. The "egg type" seems to have developed, or at least to have become popular, in southern France. The blended egg and ingredients made a garlic mayonnaise, and this type has become the best known, with even two of my Spanish cookbooks giving recipes for this type, with only scant mention of the traditional aioli, which is still used in parts of Spain. Of course, for the egg style aioli, the use of store bought mayonnaise is both convenient and safer than using raw egg. Aioli is commonly served with fish or other seafood, steamed vegetables, as well as with other foods.     

Ingredients:

1/2 cup mayonnaise (reduced fat style is fine)
3 cloves garlic
2 tablespoons olive oil 
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch pepper

In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients until smooth. Chill the aioli.  
 
* One of my Spanish cookbooks spells it, "ali oli" (two words), and it also notes that in some parts of Spain it is called "ajiaceite" and "ajoaceite." 

WORD HISTORY:
Ball (#2)-This is the noun (related to "ballet") meaning, "dance (usually a formal dance)," and it is a totally different word from "ball," with the meaning, "rounded object." It goes back to Indo European "gwele/gwela," with the notion of, "bubble up, rise up, overflow, throw outward or upward," and it is distantly related to Old English "cwylla," which meant "a spring;" that is, "a source of water" ("water that rises out of the ground," and German still uses "Quelle," with this meaning, as well as, more commonly, the general meaning "source"). The Indo European form gave transliterated Greek "ballizein," with the meaning, "to jump about in dance" (literally, "to throw oneself about"). Latin borrowed the term from Greek as "ballare," also meaning, "to dance." This passed to Latin-based Old French as, "baller," with the same meaning, and which produced the noun, "bal," meaning, "a dance." English borrowed the word from French, circa 1650.