More Smoked Sardines!

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leah elisheva

Master of the Pit
Original poster
Sep 19, 2013
3,028
214
Seacoast of New Hampshire
Good Morning to all! And Happy Thursday!

While I've already posted some smoked sardines on this site; Dirtsailor suggested that I start showing the prep work involved in the pieces I make, and so I figured that having smoked more sardines this morning (at 6 a.m. or so even) that was a good enough place to start.

If nothing else, you'll know that I don't simply buy "prepared food" and plunk it down on the table, and that I am indeed gutting, scaling, smoking, and so forth, myself.

OK, Cheers to today! These sardines, and smoked sweet potato, were AMAZING! Make today delicious! - Leah


The above sardines were just exclaiming, "Please have me for lunch!"


Grizzly as all get out "morning photo" as it is; I adore gutting and scaling fish, and find it therapeutic and calming even! My kind of therapy! (Kindly forgive the early morning sloppiness, though I wasn't going for "Vogue Magazine" here, by any stretch, and just happily making my lunch)!


Layering the fish and some sliced sweet potato onto my little mini "thing," this smoked for 25 minutes and smelled fantastically!


Kale, shallots, olive oil and oregano, just topped this off and it was DELICIOUS! I eat these like corn on the cob, munching up the tail and bones (great calcium right) and loving it all the way!


The remains reveal a secret: I'm very thorough, and a "good eater." Though somehow, I think that part is known.

OK then, that's my first attempt to show the prep. May Dirtsailor and all others enjoy! And here's a huge cheers to everyone's Thursday being fabulous!!!!! - Leah
 
Man those sardines look fantastic and I agree with you that the prep work prior to smoking to me is just as much fun as the rest of it.

Thanks for sharing.
 
Hi Leah,

Your creations constantly make my mouth water and I'm not usually much for fish.  Your creativity and plating are wonderful.

The picture...well you look absolutely gorgeous to me!  
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 If that is sloppiness I can't wait to see you dressed up.

Keep the great dishes coming!

Thank you for sharing again,

Bill
 
Thank you so much Bill, and Link! So very kind!

Here's to the 'prep' indeed! The "process" in life, as far as so many things anyway, seems just as fun as the result - if not more so! Agreed!

Happy Thursday!!!! Cheers! - Leah
 
This Thread is just flat out awesome!!!

And that was one of the things I loved about Smelts too---Eating the bones, and back then my favorite part of a trout was the tail---Nice & crispy!! You're bringing back memories!!

Thanks for sharing, Leah!!!

Bear
 
Thank you tons Bear, Dirtsailor, and SmokinHusker! The canned ones are delicious too, although I love smoking the whole!!! Happy Thursday!!!!!! Cheers! - Leah
 
Leah - This is just gorgeous, as all of your threads are.

I've eaten freshly caught grilled countless time on the beaches and in tapas bars in Portugal and Spain, but they're rarely available where I live. When I do find them, I've never smoked them because I never thought of it. I've just grilled them following a marinade of oil, lemon, garlic, fennel, and smoked Spanish paprika. Next time around, I'll try smoking them.

One important thing my Iberian friends taught me many years ago was the proper way of eating them. Using the head and the tail as handles, they're eaten like corn on the cob.
 
Well thank you so much dls1!

Agreed, entirely! (The 'corn on the cob' method of eating)!

I eat the tail, and all the body/bones/skin whole thing, and then take out the little cheeks of the head and eat that, and leave only what is shown in the last photo above. DELICIOUS stuff!

The bones are so small, and once smoked, you can just munch through the whole thing - oil dripping down the chin - and eat like a Bacchanalian and passionate lunatic!  It's pretty fun! And at 6 or so in the morning even!

Anyway, your food sounds fabulous! (With fennel and paprika and all).

Here's to wonderful food and to life and to today! Cheers! - Leah
 
There is an old post somewhere of mine where I preserve sardines the " village" way. Like a poor mans anchovies . Butterfly,packed between layers of salt with weights on top.Left for a month then washed,dried,packed in jars under oil with chilli.
I agree about the therapy value of fish cleaning until you do 7 -10 kg of sardines!
They are a great fish much under rated. Have you tried them " agri dolce" sweet & sour" ?
 
Hi Moikel!

That all sounds wonderful!

I have not had "sweet & sour" sardines. That must be fabulous too!

Whether herring, smelts, sardines, anchovies (the white & the brown too), or whatever it be; I love it all!

Happy Friday to you!!!!! (As I believe it's Friday now in Australia). Cheers! - Leah
 
Hi Foamheart! The two were actually great together! (Especially when pushing the potato around in the oil and oregano etc.)! I loved it!!!

Anyway, here's to a fabulous Thursday evening!!! (For a gal who wakes up at 3 a.m. each day, this is my Midnight practically, and so I may not be as sharp as when newly awake. However, I STILL think that combo worked well). Smiles.

Happy evening to you!!! Cheers! - Leah
 
I will do sweet & sour sardines soon.Total fire bans here so it will pan fried not grilled. From what I see of your cooking style its your sort of dish.
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.Our sardines are a bit different,hugely under rated fish by people to lazy or uneducated to clean fish but dumb enough to pay stupid money for fillets of farmed fish.

Love your cooking.
 
Thank you Moikel!

I really enjoy the "process" of working for one's food - whether pulling apart a Cornish hen and scraping every tendon and area until the bare bones of a carcass are all that remain, or cleaning fish, cracking apart a lobster, shucking clams to eat raw - or oysters - and so it goes. It somehow makes me appreciate what I'm eating even more.

Your nation has really suffered from these horrible fires! I hope things are much better today.

Cheers to the weekend!!! - Leah

*PS: To all, did anybody get an elk yesterday???? I'm salivating just thinking about it!!!!!!
 
Fires seem to be under control. There will be a lot of soul searching & cost counting from here.
Massive respect to our firefighters ,it's been a terrible time & it's only early in the season.
I learnt the process part back on the farm,once I had basics I could apply it to critters I hadn't seen before like squid,octopus .
My week ender is on the coast in a little fishing & oyster town. My neighbour was the world champion oyster opener in 1984, Galway oyster festival. He s still fast a dozen in 55 seconds on TV cooking show this year , at 64 ! He currently turns over 40,000 dozen a year ,100,000 dozen back in the day!
 
Hi Great Cookies! And happy Tuesday to you!

I smoked some more whole sardines today for lunch, and this time paired those alongside some oven roasted root veggies that were in a SMOKED paprika, SMOKED Hawaiian Kiawe Wood Sea Salt, and Grapeseed Oil sauce!

Collard greens went into it all too, and the end result was just tremendous! I munched through all the bones, devoured the entire thing, and just adored it!

Happy terrific Tuesday doings to all! And here's to making today even better than yesterday! Cheers!!!!! - Leah



 
Nice looking Sardines Again, Leah!!!

You always make them look so appetizing!!!

Thanks for sharing!

Bear
 
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