I’d like to add that fish steaks, sometimes purchased in error, are not the same as the sardines discussed above.
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/bb256/GaryM_photo/fishsteak.jpg
These are Herring Steaks, not Sardines! Accept no substitutes!
Oh man, I love sardines. I normally have them with Scandinavian or German crispbread, or pumpernickel. I either put them on the crispbread, or eat them straight out of the can. I don’t really have any brand preferences, but I like the ones in either a spicy tomato sauce or a mustard sauce.
Drink your favorite beer or ale with them as well. Makes a stringent cut.
I’ve been reading this thread hoping that some hint would help me actually swallow one of the little buggers. Sardines and herring, ugh for me.
I do get all kinds and fix them nicely for my guy who loves them, but any bite I take just turns over and over in my mouth until I have that odd salivating bit just before retching, and I decide to give up again.
Make a plain canned sardine and olive oil with cured black olive tapenade. Canned Sardines, the litmous oil, Cured Black olives, olive oil, vinegar, garlic, pepper sauce, and pepperoncini flakes, salt and pepper. Top a toasted Bruschetta with the paste… toast with some asiago cheese asprinkled. Maybe a garnish of roasted red pepper (pimiento).
For beginners (the OP, maggenkid) - half a tin of sardines mixed with a sploot of tomato sauce is less totally fishy than what we grown-up aficionados prefer. This has worked for three generations in our family.
Tinned in springwater, served on toast. Yum.
I’m gonna channel my inner Coolio.
Stank Ass Sardine Bread
1 loaf of french bread, split in half
1 Can of Sardines or Fish Steaks in Hot Pepper Sauce
1 can of pitted Black Cali Olives drained
1 1/2 cups Mayo-naize
1/2 cup Garlic (a stank ass gob)
A Jar of Pimentos drained and chopped
A drizzle my Nizzzle of Olive Oil and Lemon Juice
A dash and a shake of balsamico (because we like it like that, Yeaaaa!)
A big hunk of grated Stank Assiago cheese
A nickle bag of Celery Salt
A dime bag of Pepper
Fricasee’ it all together in a blender or food processor and spread on both halves of the Bread.
Put it on a cookie pan and slam in a 400F oven until toasted, bubbly, and melted …
Shaka ZULU!
I really like them warmed in a pan of olive oil with a minced onion, 4 smooshed cloves of garlic or so, a little tomato paste, a little anchovies, some fresh herbs and a handful of capers then served up over pasta with a little cheese on top.
Mom used to mash a can of sardines (oil drained) with cream cheese and serve it on Ritz crackers when I was a kid; I thought everyone ate 'em that way.
What I mean is that I’m about as far away from the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific, and Atlantic as possible and am therefore unable to get fresh sardines.
Whenever I get them, I usually get them smoked or the type encased in tomato sauce, apply to a crispy cracker or Melba toast, and eat. I want to say they have bones but they’re so small you won’t notice them (especially with the crunch of the toast/cracker). They’re good but they make my girlfriend (who has never tried them and is therefore, completely unqualified to comment on them) disgusted.
An Italian friend of mine would mix butter 50/50 with olive oil in an electric skillet on low heat. He would add a can of sardines and stir the mixture until the sardines completely disintegrated and he had a homogeneous mixture. The skillet went to the table and we’d sit around it dipping pieces of bread, raw cabbage leaves, raw broccoli or cauliflower, and baby carrots in the sardine butter. Absolutely delicious
I had sardines grilled at a restaurant, and they were delicious. No idea how easy it is to buy them fresh, though.
FWIW I just ate a tin of Crown Prince brand Wild Caught Skinless & Boneless Sardines (hand packed in water). Pretty tasty. I think I liked the Roland brand I had over the weekend a little bit better, but the Crown Prince were good. They tasted pretty much like chunk light tuna.
Just, perhaps, a bit … chunkier. 