Sardines… Tuna’s fishier cousin, overlooked by most people who claim “it’s too fishy.” Well yes it is fish. It’s also pretty much 100% of the time the cheaper option. Sometimes, fishy is what you’ve got to work with, and so you make it work.
During my time as a Peace Corps volunteer in The Gambia, we’d mostly eat sardines with a loaf of baguette, colloquially known as tapa lapa. Drain the can of sardines. Mix it with a few spoons of mayo, a thinly sliced onion, a splash of vinegar, maybe a cucumber or a tomato if it happens to be around, generous pinches of black pepper or glugs of chili sauce, along with a sprinkled half cube of maggi. Honestly a great dinner in a pinch.
Since then, I’ve decided to always keep a can of sardines in my pantry. I don’t always prepare it the same way. My fanciest preparation was probably when I lived in Portland, Oregon, and there were some purple potatoes that just happened to be in the kitchen. I turned it into a purple potato salad with dijon mustard and sardines.
I currently live in Lebanon, where a can of sardines is the only animal-based protein under $1.
One of the things I’ve learned from living in different countries with limited resources is how to cook with what’s available. I’m not big on recipes, and unless you’re trying to understand a specific technique, recipes can be very rigid and necessitate shopping before commencing. I prefer to work in reverse. What’s available right now, and what can I make with it?
This is essentially an anti-recipe for one of my favorite ways to eat sardines. The Kitchen Cabinet Poke Bowl.
The Kitchen Cabinet Poke Bowl for Two
(unless you're able to eat a whole tin of sardines by yourself in which case props to you)
What you'll need:
-1 cup of uncooked rice
-That tin of sardines from the back of the pantry (though you could also use tuna and I wouldn't judge)
-Cucumbers or Carrots for CRUNCH
-An onion, red/yellow/green, your choice we're not picky
-Vinegar, white vinegar or apple cider or rice vinegar if you've got some, you'll need more than you think
-Soy sauce, again you decide how much you think you need
-a handful of cilantro if you're not one of the cursed people of the world who think cilantro tastes like soap
-Fresh or dried chilis, or chili sauce, for fire
-Other crunchy things like radishes, kale, greens, maybe some canned corn, whatever you’ve got, you can be extra fancy too and throw on an avocado or a mango if it’s available
The trick to this recipe is to treat the sardines like a sauce, not the main event, so that each bite gets a bit of everything.
Step 1: Cook your rice. I'm not going to teach you how to do this here.
Step 2: Flake your sardines in a bowl with a fork. Leave no chunks chunked.
Step 3: Add your vinegar, soy sauce. Think sauce-like consistency.
*Chef's note- determine these ratios yourself. Some people are salty. Some people are tangy. Some people are spicy. Search within your soul and ask yourself, "What does my heart desire?"
This may change on different days, and that's okay! Recipes shouldn't be static.
Step 4: Add your onions. You can slice, dice, chop, shred. The world is your onion. There are no rules here.
Step 5: Add your chili element. If you're using fresh chilis, dice them finely. If you're using flakes, use your judgement and preference. If you've got hot sauce, a few dabs will do just fine. And if you're a weakling, you can use black pepper, it's okay.
Step 6: Assemble! Start with a layer of rice, followed by your sardine onion sauce situation, then the cucumbers and your other crunchy things. Garnish with chopped cilantro, or maybe more onion or something pretty and green on top.
Step 7: Enjoy the fishy salty vinegary goodness.
Sardines…
Very soothing and mesmerizing reading this article… the subject by itself is very challenging yet inviting and brings lots of my teens and twenties’ memories.
Sardines to us when away from home either when going to studies in a different city or when being overseas was associated with Lemon and Olive oil. These two ingredients were the essential elements to prepare a Sardines sandwich with pocket bread. Elevating its use and mixes with all other elements and choices brings it to a higher standards from a needed entity to a fantasy meal…
I love all the verbs, adjectives and pictures you used to describe your experience with sardines.
I tasted and enjoyed the best meals of Sardines later on in life when visiting Portugal in my early sixties and ate their national meal of fresh large grilled Sardines with my Sangrias.