Thundersticks!

I was having lunch with Joel back in August, telling him about the menu I was planning for an upcoming baby shower.  I needed one more appetizery dish, and while I was thinking maybe a crudité platter or stuffed endive leaves, Joel described his family's go-to potluck dish.


It's basically meatloaf baked in a hollowed-out loaf of sourdough, he explained.  You bisect the loaf, yank out the insides, pack the bread shell with meatloaf, bake it, and then watch party guests elbow each other in the eye to get to the most delicious dish on the table.


There are a few tricks to making it, he made clear.  First, you have to use Soy Vey to flavor the meat.  It's a bottled teriyaki-like marinade, and it makes putting this dish together fast and easy (and tasty).  Second, you use the bread innards in the meatloaf.  And third, you've go to bake the loaves directly on the oven rack, tempted as you might be to use a baking sheet.


Them's the rules.

Beyond that, I put my own spin in interpreting his family's signature dish.  I used ground turkey instead of beef and added in a healthy heap of cilantro and squirt of sriracha to take the Asian flavors a little further.  And since I needed finger food for my spread, I used a baguette to yield ideally portioned two-bite pieces.  I also made a simple dipping sauce of mayonnaise and sriracha which you can make as spicy or not to your liking.

It's a dish that's fairly easy to make, has a certain intrigue ("How'd that meat get in there?"), and is mighty tasty;  all it was lacking was a name.  I was considering "Bullseyes" or "Benjamine Bites" (in honor of the family who inspired the recipe).  But that first night I made and served them, as I was in the kitchen cutting up and arranging a plate of them, party honoree Jed casually strolled through.  

"I think you should call them 'Thundersticks'," he said offhandedly.

Thundersticks!

And so Thundersticks! were born.

I allow a generous 3/4 pound of meat per baguette, so if you use a particularly thin baguette like I do (I use Acme bread whenever I can), you'll probably have leftover filling, which you can fry up l like a burger (use the sriracha-mayo sauce with it, or mix a little miso paste and lemon juice into mayonnaise for another great condiment), or make meatballs and enjoy them with noodles in broth.

Thundersticks! are the gift that keeps on giving.

Thanks to Joel for the inspiration and Jed for the name.  And to everyone who's bellowed "Thundersticks!" at the mention of them.  It's kind of hard not to.


Thundersticks!

makes about 48 pieces

2 baguettes (sweet or sour, but I always prefer sour, and as narrow and hard-crusted as you can find)

1 1/2 pounds ground turkey (dark meat is better than light)

2 large eggs

1 small white onion, grated on the large holes of box grater, juice reserved with onions

1/3 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1/2 cup Soy Vey

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2-3 TB sriracha (or more to taste)

2 cups mayonnaise

Trim the ends off the baguettes and cut them into quarters so you have 4 short baguettes.  Gut them, digging out the soft part with your fingers and saving it in a large bowl.  Set the baguette shells aside.


 

Chop or shred the bread innards into small pieces.  They don't have to be crumbs, but they should be small.  Add in the turkey, eggs, onion, cilantro, Soy Vey, pepper, and 1 tablespoon of the sriracha.  Mix thoroughly;  mixture will be a bit loose and wet.

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.  Tear 8 lengths of aluminum foil slightly longer than the length of a baguette shell.  Use your fingers to stuff each baguette with the filling, pushing it in from both ends of the baguette and packing it as densely as you can.  

Wrap each baguette piece tightly in a piece of foil.  Bake in a single layer directly on the rack (not on a baking sheet) for 40-50 minutes, turning once about 20 minutes into cooking.  The Thundersticks are ready when the internal temperature reads 165ºF.  

Remove them from the oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  Carefully unwrap the hot sticks and allow them to cool for another 10-15 minutes to allow for easier cutting.  Cut each stick into 6 equal pieces about 1 inch wide.

Mix the mayonnaise with 1-2 tablespoons of sriracha and serve alongside the pieces of Thundersticks.