CBRDB Blog

I love sardines but they're not always easy to find, so when I visited McCalls Meat & Fish in Los Feliz and they had some in the display I snapped up half a dozen. These little fish reminded me of a holiday in northern Spain when I was 14. We spent some time with a family we knew in La Coruña who took us on a picnic one day, out in the beautiful Spanish countryside, and the father grilled some fresh sardines over an open fire. I love how the memory and smell of food can transport you back to another time and place. Since I didn't have any particular recipe in mind when I bought them, other than I knew I wanted to cook them whole and probably grill them, I searched through the database for a recipe and narrowed it down to: Grilled Sardines from Made in Spain: Spanish Dishes for the American Kitchen by José Andrés, Roasted Sardines from Italian Easy: Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, Roasted Sardines with Bread Crumbs, Green Garlic, and Mint from A16: Food + Wine by Nate Appleman and Shelley Lindgren, Sardines Stuffed with Coriander, Garlic and Cumin from Moro: The Cookbook by Sam & Sam Clark, but in the end I liked the look of Barbecued Sardines on Toast with Shallot Chutney and Basil from Fish by Tom Aikens.

The chutney is easy, basically throw all the ingredients into a pan and after about an hour you end up with a wonderfully fragrant relish. Next I cleaned and boned the sardines, which I wasn't looking forward to since I thought it would be hard but Mr. Atkins provides some helpful instructions. After stuffing the fish with basil and garlic the recipe instructs you to loosely tie each one 4 times with string using a granny knot. Now I consider my self pretty adept at tying meat, poultry and fish but I had an awful time with these little fish, so after some time, and after I had pretty much destroyed the first one, I ended up cutting single pieces of twine to tie across the fish which worked just fine. The results were what I expected. The grilled olive oil garlic bread, topped with the shallot chutney and the sardines is a great combination. The recipe seemed to take a lot longer than I was expecting but that’s probably because of the time needed for the relish (which could be made a day in advance), and then for me the tying of the fish, but the meal it provided was certainly worth it.

After I had posted the story about Mussels in Bruges, I asked my wife to Retweet my post to all her follows (since she has a lot more than I do). She said no. At first I thought, "what the fava bean!", but then she reminded me that as a vegetarian she promotes vegetarian values and it would go against her principals to promote anything where there was the consumption of something living. I have to admire that. She is also is the one helping with my awareness of paying attention to a balanced diet if we want to take care of our health, and the health of the planet for that matter (in particular a conscienceness about the global impact of factory farming), and we can start by reducing our consumption of dairy products, meat (I'm trying), processed carbohydrates, and junk food. So making these soups were inspired by her. First I made Lentil and Chestnut Soup with Fennel from Vegetable Soups by Deborah Madison. This is a hearty soup, very nice on a cold evening. The recipe is well laid out with a nice introduction before the ingredients. There's a fair bit of prep but it's worth the effort, it tastes good and I like any soup that has wine as an ingredient.

The second soup was the very simple Carrot and Fresh Coriander Soup from My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer Ichaporia King. This is a very simple and light soup, definitely as a beginning to a bigger meal as it's not very filling. This also has a nice introduction, and it's very simple to follow and quick to make. She also suggests it cold, so I thought it would make a lovely gazpacho for the summer.

And finally, Easy Split Pea Soup with Spinach from New Vegetarian by Robin Asbell. A very simple and colourful soup that tastes great when ready. The instructions are short, but that's all they need to be since basically you just have to put all the ingredients in the pot. I like this new book and will certainly try some of the other recipes.

Just one thought I had about all of them. They are all water based soups and I couldn't help feeling like they would be better if made with a combination of vegetable stock and water.

I made the Lemon-Rosemary Flan from page 162 of El Farol by James Campbell Caruso. It's a lovely dessert, and very simple to make, but to be honest I don't think it's a particularly well written recipe, especially if you're making flan for the first time. I would suggest using the ingredients from this recipe but following the more descriptive instructions from somewhere like the Caramel Custard recipe from The Way to Cook by Julia Child. A rosemary sprig is shown in the book but the sugared rosemary sprig and candied lemon peel are my own addition (presentation is everything). You can find instructions on how to make candied lemon peel also in The Way to Cook by Julia Child. And the way to sugar rosemary sprigs is to wash them, pat they dry and then brush them lightly with egg whites. Then sprinkle sugar over them (I used vanilla sugar) and then let them dry.