Sardine sandwich

Sardines, carrots and peppers pickled with coriander, and onion on ciabatta. Too messy to take to work, but delicious.

sardines

This is a new favorite for a quick and very satisfying meal. I started with a french bâtard from the Hungry Ghost, drizzled it with olive oil and placed some Dodoni feta on top. This went under the broiler until the feta started to brown and I topped it with Alshark sardines "in spicy oil." I've done this closed in ciabbatine, with or without mustard, and it's always great. The asparagus were tossed in olive oil and salt and broiled until sizzling.

sardines & kimchi.

These are a new type of Japanese sardines that I found at Tran's World Market in Hadley (at $2.19/ea.). They're packed in ume vinegar, shoyu and some sugar. They're sweet, very clean tasting and quite rich.

I served them atop hot sweet brown rice and kimchi. The tartness of the kimchi and the sweetness of the sardines balance out perfectly. Serving both cold on hot rice makes for a meal that feels cooked yet is quite refreshing for a quick, summery lunch.

sardines & fennel.

Every time I'm in Worcester, MA I stop at Ed Hyder's, a wonderful little market that carries hard-to-find items like ras el hanout, affordable and delicious anchovies in jars, ten types of feta cheese, Lebanese, Geeek and Moroccan specialties, three grades of couscous, and various sardines, my favorite being Alshark sardines in oil or in spicy tomato sauce.

Tonight I wanted some sardines, but not on crackers. This chow post had a suggestion to broil tinned sardines. One of my favorite fresh sardine recipes is a Jamie Oliver recipe that uses fennel and sardines to make a pasta sauce. So I set to fond something simple that used fennel and tinned sardines.

This used said Alshark sardines, from Morocco. I generally trust/have had the best luck with sardines from Morrocco, Potugal and Japan. (The Japanese sardines are often packed in miso or something else and exact a different preparation).

This is what I came up with:

Marinate a very thinly sliced small bulb of fennel and toss with salt, mustard (I used a coarse, homemade tarragon mustard) and white wine vinegar. Cook some rice (brown basmati is perfect). Place the sardines under the broiler. Get them very very hot. Toss the hot rice with olive oil and serve the sardines on top with a drizzling of sriracha or another hot sauce.

This was terribly satisfying. So much so that I forgot to take a photo.

N.B.: just discovered the Society for the Appreciation of the Lowly Tinned Sardine blog!