Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Broiled fresh sardines with a simple potato salad

Ok, I am going to give it a try... This Monday (a joyful day off work) I was passing by my favorite fish supplier in the Bay Area. Actually, I have never found such a good fish store anywhere, so this store deserves my subjective "Best Ever" award. Yes, I am talking about Tokyo Fish Market on San Pablo Ave. They had fresh and wiggling sardines so I decided to grab a pound (did I mention how I love the fact that the staff there cleans, scales and cuts the fish for you for free?). I was too lazy to fire up the grill and decided to use the convenience of having an oven. A similar recipe in one of Gordon Ramsay's shows provided the inspiration.
Here it comes: very simple and tasty broiled sardines  with an even simpler potato salad:

To serve 2 you will need:
4 fresh sardines (or more if you really love them), cleaned, scaled, boned and cut in half like a butterfly
6 potatoes (I had Yukon Gold)
4 tbsp Creme fraiche  (Bret, forgive me for the missing accents)
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp chives
olive oil
salt & pepper
lemon wedges

Boil the potatoes in their skins until tender. Drain and crush lightly with the back of a fork. Let cool. Add the creme fraiche, lemon juice and snipped chives. Season well with salt and pepper and set aside. If you don't want to spend money on creme fraiche, you could use sour cream, mixed with a tablespoon or two of heavy cream. Using sour cream alone would make the salad too tangy. Nothing compares to good old-fashioned creme fraiche though. 

Heat the broiler (set it to something like "very hot"). Lay the sardines skin-side up on a baking sheet brushed with olive oil. Broil for 4-5 minutes, turn them over and cook for another 3 minutes or so. The cooking time will depend entirely on your oven. My Wedgewood is from the 1930s and heats up like a nuclear plant. Remove the sardines from the baking sheet and season well.

Arrange the potato salad in a pretty pile on a plate (if you want to be fancy, you can place it on some lettuce leaves). The hot sardines go on top of the salad. Make sure to drizzle this dish with some freshly made dressing (lemon juice + some water + olive oil + salt & pepper). The water in the dressing is Gordon Ramsay's idea and I have actually come to like it. It makes the whole thing lighter while still preserving the flavors.

Serve the salad and fish with some lemon wedges.


1 comment:

Bret said...

Oh man this sounds amazing. And you are forgiven about the accents.