Uncanny Sardines
Herb-Grilled Fresh Sardines with Chili-Peanut Sauce | Curry-Roasted Sunflower Sprouts | White Grapefruit Juice-Butter Reduction with Salami, Shallots, and Grain Mustard
PEOPLE ALWAYS ASK ME WHY I don't include recipes in my posts. It is because I want people to get into the creative fun of coming up with their own recipes, as opposed to just copying what someone else has done. That and I am also a little territorial when it comes to my recipes, so although I do list all of my ingredients in my tags, folks who want to try to recreate one of my meals will have to figure out the proportions on their own. That being said, for this post, I don't mind at least including the preparation as well, since it developed in my head over three days and involved a lot things and hadn't done or used before.
Fairway gets in fresh sardines in every Thursday. I had always been curious as to their taste/texture, etc., and was happy to buy two sardines split and beheaded. (Supposedly they're too small to filet...?!) As I soaked them in milk once I got back home, I also started to render some chopped hard salami in a small sauce pan until it started to release not just its oil but its color as well. I the sautéed some sliced shallots in the oil with the salami until they just started to caramelize. I then deglazed the pan with white grapefruit juice, added some butter, stirred in some grain mustard, and let it start to reduce over what I'm going to cal a "high simmer".
I then toss some sunflower sprouts—like bean sprouts but, of course, nuttier—in olive oil, salt, pepper, and curry powder, wrapped them lightly in tin foil and threw them into a pre-heated over to roast and wilt a little.
I removed my sardines from the milk, pat them dry, season their skins and cavities with salt, pepper, dried oregano, and dried thyme, then grilled them in a cast iron skillet, a few minutes on each side.
I quickly stir some chili paste with sriracha sauce, peanut butter, sesame oil, cider vinegar, fish sauce, salt and pepper, and thin it out with a little bit of cold water.
The reduction gets ladled into the bottom of a recessed plate, the roasted sprouts get placed on top of the reduction, the sardines, hot off the skillet and now sporting even greater color on its skins, get placed on top of the sprouts. Then a spoon drizzle of the chili-peanut sauce and some fresh, still crunchy sunflower sprouts finish the dish.
My first time using fresh sardines and enjoying their firm, fleshy, flavor-absorbing meat (and I was not as diligently about tweezing the negligibly small bones as I would if I were making this for a guest), making this particular reduction (sweet and sour from the grapefruit, a little unctuous from the butter, porky and salty from the salami, and earthy and floral from the shallots), making this particulate sauce (which I can't wait to try on a whole host of things, what, with its rounded piquant heat, acidity, and nuttiness), or roasting sprouts (verdant and aromatic).
I had told a few people I was making this dish, and they were confused, thinking I would be using the canned sardines we all grew up with. Hopefully from these photos, I'll change a few people's of perceptions of what sardines are. And, I sure if I do, more people will be asking me for my recipes...! ;)
Bun Apple Tea!
KACnyc
Herb-Grilled Fresh Sardines with Chili-Peanut Sauce | Curry-Roasted Sunflower Sprouts | White Grapefruit Juice-Butter Reduction with Salami, Shallots, and Grain Mustard
