I love taramosalata too. I was actually surprised to learn that traditionally there are no creamy products mixed into it... it's actually just the caviar, bread crumbs, lemon juice, olive oil and maybe some salt or other seasonings. I've yet to try making it myself, though.
Oooh I LOVE this - I lived on this when I was in Greece years ago! I completely forgot about it, so thank you for reminding me. I need some new things for my repertoire.
I love herring in wine sauce, smoked oysters and anchovies. These things are fine on a healthy diet when used as condiments - lightly IF you can resist the urge to dive into the can/jar. lol
Last edited by archychick; 01-30-2009 at 02:13 PM.
I love herring in wine sauce, smoked oysters and anchovies. These things are fine on a healthy diet when used as condiments - lightly IF you can resist the urge to dive into the can/jar. lol
I eat herring on wine sauce as a meal item. A bit of sodium and some sugar but all in all low calories and a lower carb type food (for me anyway).
My sitter is Thai and she has given me these packets of fish strips made by a company called taro. The first bag was purchased in a NJ Asian market. The second, sent to her by her mother-- as a gift for me
Yesterday I had fried smelt for lunch (and the leftovers I split with my husband for dinner). So yummy, and they were really small so they tasted really good (only a bit "muddy" like cat fish, if they get too big, the can be mutch muddier and fishier).
I must have still been craving fish, because I just had the sardines in Kurma curry for a late snack (I had protein exchanges and a few fat exchanges left). It was REALLY strange, because the curry sauce overpowered the sardines. I felt like maybe I should have heated them up and served them over rice. It must have smelled good to our old cat, because she was begging for a taste (she's a carb addict and her very favorite food is potato chips, well corn chips - bugles actually). We've cut back on her carbs drastically though, because the vet says it's the carbohydrates causing her, uh stinkiness problem (she gets gassy, but even when she uses the litter box for doodie, you can smell the doodie all over the apartment for about 10 minutes). When I was done with the plate, I wiped some of the sauce off the sardine remnants, and moved them to the edge of the plate and offered ChubChub some - and instead of going for the clean sardine - she went straight for the curry sauce. I had to pull the plate away, because I'm not sure curry is good for cats (and it can't be good for her odor issue).
I have only one can of weird fish left and it's "fried mackerel in green curry." Mackerel can be stronger than sardines, so I'm a bit more intimidated by it than the other two. On payday (Feb 18), I think I'm going to get some different varieties and maybe the smoked eel, since I love it so.
Mackerel can be stronger than sardines, so I'm a bit more intimidated by it than the other two.
Is it the consistancy of chunked tuna? I was so addicted to canned mackerel in tomato juice when I lived in Denmark! Oh my, that was good and this thread brought back memories.
I'm not sure. I haven't tried it yet, but I'm assuming the texture to be very similar to the fried sardines in curry. If so, it's not quite the same texture as canned tuna, it's a bit drier. The fish are apparently flash fried (no batter) and then canned in the sauce. The flash frying doesn't seem to add fat or flavor, so I'm thinking it's done actually to remove some of the fat, at least from the skin, but as a result the fish meat is a bit less moist than what I'm used to in canned fish. You know how if you overcook chicken or beef in a sauce or soup how it has a drier texture even though it's floating in sauce or broth - that's what the texture of the sardines reminded me of.
I'm still getting used to the new fact that I love fish. Hubby says it's because I'm discovering "good fish" in WI, and I have to admit that he is right. In central IL, where I was raised fish dishes in restaurants were very often a gamble, and usually pan or deep fried were the safest choices. They were also something you "had to eat" during Lent, not something you generally chose very often the rest of the year. Here in WI, any restaurant that doesn't have a friday fish fry (and by that, that means at least one fried and one broiled or grilled fish dish also) doesn't stay in business very long. Even the mexican and chinese restaurants have to have the obligatory friday fish.
I remember being a fairly small kid and wanting canned mackerel because I liked the picture on the can, and had seen my grandpa eating it out of a can. I tried to put it in the grocery cart, and my mom put it back and told me how "awful" that stuff was (she couldn't stanned canned salmon or canned mackerel because she had eaten it "all the time" when she was a kid because her parents didn't have a lot of money and canned fish was cheap).
It wasn't until I was in college that I tried canned mackerel for the first time. At the time it was under a $1 for a large can (12 to 16 oz), so it fit into the starving student's budget. I liked it, but it was definitely more the texture and taste of sardines in a can to me, only more so. I remember removing most of the skin because it was too oily for me. I ate it a lot in college, though not enough to really get sick of it (at least not as sick of it as I was of ramen noodles), I just stopped buying it when I had money.
Speaking of fried fish, DH is visiting his family in Alabama for a few days and he told me this morning that he ate 6 pieces of fried catfish last night. OMG! He's generally a healthy eater and avoids fried foods, but you know how it is when you "go home" and get something you haven't eaten in awhile and that tastes good!
I guess we are blessed here in the Pacific Northwest (seattle area) with great seafood markets and fab seafood restaurants as well. We eat salmon as well as another variety of fish (usually tilapia or halibut) nearly every week.
Mmm. I love sardines.. I used to have sardine sandwiches, which is basically just sardines on bread
I love sardine sandwiches! I make them almost the same as my Grandfather did. Good rye bread, mustard, red onion slices, and the tiny Norwegian canned sardines (my Grandfather used butter instead of mustard.) Yum! I also love to eat the sardines that come in tomato sauce on crackers.
Pickled herring is really yummy too.
The only canned fish I don't care for is mackerel and I love mackerel usually. I wonder if I just bought a bad brand or something?
I love sardines laid out on an Ak-Mak cracker, and I particularly love a squirt of spicy brown mustard on top of them.
One of Jane Brody's cookbooks has a recipe for sardines & broccoli salad & a sort of Asian-influenced dressing over it (I substitute Splenda for the sugar) that I haven't had in a while. Now I'm thinking it's time to make it again, once broccoli goes on sale.
Would love to have a description of that sardine and broccoli salad recipe. My problem is eating these items without something like bread or rice which I keep to a minimum.
I found a new oriental grocery in town, recommended to us by the owners of a small thai restaurant we love. They told us which store carried the freshest produce and had the best prices. It's in a little strip mall in the middle of a residential area. You'd never find it if you didn't know it was there.
Anyway I found some more adventures in fish products. A can of "fried baby clams with chilli" - really good, but not in a chile sauce as I thought, but with a chili pepper seasoning. The clams were very chewy, and extremely HOT, sort of like sweet, hot, slightly salty, slightly fishy bublegum. I put what I didn't finish in a container for the fridge. They're pretty hot, even for me, so I spread a couple crackers with cream cheese and topped each with three clams (eating them this way, it will take me three days to finish).
I also got three more Smiling Fish products Musaman Curry Fried Sardines, Fried Mackerel in Chilli sauce, and Red Curry Fried Sardines.
I also found an online store, to show you what they look like (I've never bought anything like these online, so I'm not recommending or endorsing the site).
bunch broccoli, cut in bite-size pieces
1 tin sardines
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tbsp. oil from tinned sardines (if water-packed, use olive oil -- sesame oil is also good)
1 tbsp. sugar (I substitute Splenda)
1/4 tsp. hot red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, crushed
Steam the broccoli till it's as toothsome as you like it. Meanwhile, combine soy sauce, oil, sugar, pepper flakes & garlic in a small bowl. Dump broccoli into the bowl, break up sardines into same bowl, add dressing and toss. Serve hot or cold.
Thank you. I think I would add some onion and cucumber in there and maybe even something sweet like craisins or a little chopped apple, plus some lemon juice or vinegar.
We have several Asian stores here and even on fresh fish, the prices are amazing. I regularly buy herbs and spices (huge bundles are .69) and whole fresh coconut ($1.). Are you concerned at all about the fact most of those items you are speaking of are imports from China?
