Edible entrails: Simple, brilliant, and deliciously gross. They look like real innards, but they actually contain very traditional and yummy ingredients. They are a twisted take on a ‘50s cocktail party hors d'oeuvre - if the party was hosted by the Sawyers.
This recipe comes from The Homicidal Homemaker who got the idea while watching The Walking Dead.
“While watching season 2 of The Walking Dead on AMC every Sunday night, I braaainstormed the idea for this dish that could be served as a party appetizer or a meal for two. I posted a picture on my personal Facebook, and not a single person correctly guessed what’s tucked inside this 100% edible dish that looks strikingly realistic to the entrails of…something…or someone…that was once alive.”
Read on for the easy-to-make recipe and secret ingredients.
Ingredients:
• 2 cans of refrigerated Crescent Dough, or puff pastry (I used Pillsbury)
• Hotdogs (for 2 cans of dough, I used 12 hotdogs)
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon of water
• Food coloring (I used AmeriColor Gels in Red, Electric Pink, Electric Blue and Electric Purple)
• Paint Palette, or divided dish
• 1 brand-new paintbrush (or a food-grade brush)
• 1 greased baking sheet
• rolling pin, optional
• knife & cutting board
Step One: Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees, or at the temperature recommended on your Crescent Dough package. Begin by cutting off the ends of the hotdogs, and discard them…or do what I did and chop them into tiny pieces and give them to your doggies as a treat. They loved it!
Cut the remaining length of the hotdog into bite-sized pieces. It doesn’t really matter if they’re even; you’re simply cutting them into tiny pieces so it’s easy to manipulate the ‘entrails’ into the desired shape.
Step Two: Make your egg wash. Simply crack an egg into a small dish, add 1 Tablespoon of water, and whisk together until full mixed.
Step Three: Open your crescent dough, and knead into a solid ball. You don’t want any traces of the perforated lines that the dough comes with. Pull off chunks of dough, roll flat with a rolling pin, and use your hands to manipulate the dough into a long length. Make sure it’s wide enough to fully wrap around a hotdog. To be quite honest, this step wasn’t very easy, as the dough didn’t want to keep it’s shape. However…this totally works in our favor, giving us tiny imperfections which really adds to the final look of the dish. So no worries if you aren’t working with perfectly
flat and shaped rectangles.
Step Four: Lay out the bite-sized pieces of the hotdog onto your dough pieces. Brush one edge with egg wash, and fold and tuck under. Set aside, seam side down.
Step Five: Once you have used all of your dough and hotdog pieces, take your greased baking sheet and carefully arrange the ‘entrails’ end to end, and manipulate them into your desired shape. Brush the ends with more egg wash and press together. Also brush egg wash in between the pieces, where they touch, and gently press together.
Step Six: Use a knife or toothpick to add further indentations and detail to the entrails. Then, add a small bit of food coloring to the paint palette. Add a small amount of egg wash to each color, to make a ‘paint’. Using your paintbrush, begin adding color to the dough. I started off with pink, added red to the crevices and indentations, and then went over it all with blue and purple in places.
Step Seven: Pop it in the oven! I left mine in the oven for about 15 minutes and it was perfect.
Step Eight: Let cool slightly, and then use a large spatula to gently lift it off of the baking sheet. Mine was quite large, so I simply loosened it from the baking sheet, and then use the spatula to slide it onto my serving dish.
Get more recipes at The Homicidal Homemaker.
