SARDINES, tasty morsels of good karma…

I'm a certifiable nut when it comes to raw bluefin tuna—I could eat it for every meal for the rest of my life (which would probably be conveniently shortened by the cumulative effects of the mercury and PCBs), but the reality is that it is prohibitively expensive, all the good stuff is consumed in Japan, and they are notoriously hard to catch on hook and line. And there's the fact that I don't freeze fish, so when I do get one it will be consumed in a series of gigantic sashimi meals stretching out over a small number of days and not a lifetime. Bluefin tuna is also severely overfished in all of the world's oceans, and I'm not helping things much by harvesting their juveniles (anything under 50-100 kg, depending on where the bluefin comes from) for my own consumption, or for that matter advertising to still more people (you) how worthy of a foodstuff this fish is.

If you find this interesting, I highly recommend the SeafoodWATCH site run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Did you know, Karen, that farmed Atlantic salmon are also on the "ecological disaster" list because of the impact that the salmon farms have on natural waterways and native fish? Yeah, I know that foodies tend to put "how it tastes" before any other consideration like ethics (think foie gras) or ecology (beluga caviar) or expense (either of the previous examples), but today I'm offering up something that is cheap, low on the food chain and has very healthy populations. You'll find it on any "best choice" list of sustainable seafood, and yes I mean sardines.



Aren't they beautiful? They're also very fresh—these are not more than an hour post-death—and herein lies one of the keys to preparing sardines or any of the traditional "pesci azzurri" like herring or anchovies. All of these small "baitfish" have a high oil content and some pretty active enzymes that break down proteins much faster than in other fish. If you're planning on eating the sardines, keep 'em cold and eat 'em right away.

My original plan was to remove head, innards and scales and fry whole. Adri reminded me that she is less than keen on having to remove bones from fish while she eats it. So how does one quantify one's affection in this household? If it's by the number of small fish that one will butterfly for the benefit of having the company of finicky spouse and kids, then I might score highly. I'm omitting the images of sardine beheadings and removal of backbones and skip to the just-before-frying shot.



I actually left a few sardines whole (because that's how I like them!) and they are in the plastic bag behind the board, which contains all-purpose flour, salt and hot paprika.

When using a dry coating like flour, it's a good idea to "rest" the floured thingies on a wooden cutting board before frying them. This gives the flour a chance to absorb some of the moisture and become more of a batter that will give a crackle-y crumb to the coating once it's fried. By the time these guys hit the hot oil they were looking less powdery and white than they do in the photo.

I used a little more than an inch of canola oil in a Dutch oven for the frying and cooked the sardines four at a time. I don't use a thermometer for cooking oil, but I would guess the temperature at around 375°F, based on the response of the oil to a wooden chopstick (moderately fast bubbles and no smoke).



My call on wine for this would be something like one of those Italian coastal whites "un poco mosso" (a little bit sparkling though not like a spumante). BTW, we're planning a wine-recommendation round table with Karen, me, and maybe our new Mouseketeer Trevor--I'm always interested in meeting someone who considers Tournedos Rossini a "light lunch." What's the proper wine choice for a spoonful of peanut butter at midnight?