Onna Stick Update

[ebonypearl]

Lollipops
Originally uploaded by nodigio

As some of you know, I've been working on a cookbook about foods on a stick.

It's almost done. I'm to the part where now I have to re-cook all the recipes and take photos of both the cooking process and the finished food on a stick.

This means buying a decent camera and bribing decent photographers with impaled foods.

It means paying strict attention to quantities instead of my usual "looks right, tastes good" pinch and pour method. That means buying my own set of measuring utensils and a kitchen scale.

I've identified 100 distinct and different types of impaled foods spanning the globe. While a lot of the food appearing on the sticks is similar, often the preparation methods are enough different to create an entirely new flavor and look. Sou vide satay, for example, has a different texture and flavor than a grilled satay. A kebab with fruit is different than one with bread. Some foods on a stick are massive and are shaved into individual servings.

And some foods are flat out weird and unusual, but fun both to make and to eat, like soup onna stick, fried soda onna stick, and hotdish onna stick.

I dug into the history and pulled up some intriguing techniques to apply to impaled foods. Sou vide (slowly cooking vacuum sealed foods in hot water) is just one way to cook food on a stick. There are the more common grilling, deep frying, and boiling, along with the less common coffined method. Foods on a stick can be baked, braised, roasted, or frozen.

The marinades and even the cutting methods make a difference.

Skewers are crucial to the success of cooking food on sticks. Bamboo may be common, but there are other skewers that can be used - some of which are edible. Pocky sticks, for example, make excellent skewers for s'mores onna stick.