Sardines

One of the typical seafoods of the coastal Mediterranean are sardines.  Usually they are either deep-fried or they're grilled.  I love them both ways.  In the U.S. sardines are mostly considered bait and one rarely finds them in fish stores.  Sardines are abundant off the coast I live near in southern California, but they sure aren't abundant in the stores.  I think I know the reason they're not popular: most southern Californians trace their heritage to the Midwest and fish cookery was never big--in fact  non-existent--in their families that came from Oklahoma, Missouri, or Michigan.  They passed on to their children and their grandchildren their disinterest in fish.  However, you can't ignore fish when you're on a big ocean, so when they did eat fish they ate fish that didn't look like fish, namely, fish fillets or unrecognizable "white" fish.  So what about those sardines?  Goodness, you could see their eyes and they had bones!

Man, what they're missing.  Of course, I miss the easy access to them.  My local Whole Foods supermarket sells local sardines for $3.99 a pound.  That's great.  Down the street is the fancy-shmancy Santa Monica Seafood selling their sardines (and they are the ONLY 2 places that sell them in all of the West side of Los Angeles, population 1 million I would imagine) for $15 a pound.  Yikes.  I told them I could get then down the street for $3.99.  They said "yeah, but these are from France."  Only in a stark raving mad country like ours would someone want to pay for a first class seat on a plane for a little fish.

So you've got your sardines.  Gut them, ripping out all the viscera including that in the head too.  Deep-fry them in plenty of olive oil for 2 to 3 minutes.  And then lay them atop of some linguine cooked with olive oil, garlic, parsley, and a dusting of cayenne.  Mighty nice.

[photo: linguine with fried sardines, Clifford A. Wright]

Moroccan Fish Tagine

A tagine is the name of an earthenware casserole with a conical lid used for stewing, braising, and casserole cookery in general. North African casserole cookery is a world apart from the cheese-laden casseroles typical of American cookery. The conical lid allows the steam produced by the ingredients to rise and collect on the interior walls, dripping back down into the food. There is a Moroccan fish tagine I like to make with any firm-fleshed white fish steak and the Moroccan relish known as sharmula. You can follow the recipe here and once you do you'll find the recipe for the sharmula too. [Photo; taginecooking.blogspot.com]

Is That Fish Fresh?

The fish in the picture was taken at the Athens Central Market in Greece and shows small tsipouris, gilt-head bream, aligned on ice for the customer. They are bent from rigor mortis, demonstrating in that fact a superior freshness. In most of America today fish is not sold whole let alone fresh. Fish tends to be sold already filleted and skinned and there is no way for anyone to tell if a fillet is fresh. It's barely possible to tell if a whole fish is fresh if sodium benzoate has been used to preserve the fish. The best way to tell if fish is of high quality is based on repeated purchases from a respected fishmonger. Taste will always tell the truth. The highest quality fish will usually be sold to high quality fish restaurants, next to other restaurants, then to high quality fishmongers, then to other fishmongers, and finally the lowest quality fish will be sold to supermarket fish departments with a few exceptions such as Whole Foods markets.

[Photo: Clifford A. Wright]