Serves 6-8 as a starter
Prep time 30 mins
Cook time 5 mins (plus softening)
Ingredients:
- 12 whole sardines
- 65g preserved lemon rind, rinsed and diced
- 60g raisins, coarsely chopped
- ½ cup each (firmly packed) mint, flat-leaf parsley and oregano, finely chopped
- Olive oil, for brushing
- 1 large red chilli, finely sliced
- Nasturtium leaves, to serve
For the Rosemary Tarator:
- 50g sourdough bread, crusts removed, coarsely torn
- 20g walnuts
- 50ml milk
- 1 hard-boiled egg, coarsely crumbled
- ½ cup each (firmly packed) rosemary, mint and flat-leaf parsley
- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped chives
- ¼ cup (firmly packed) tarragon
- 1tsp baby salted capers, rinsed and drained well
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 200ml olive oil
- 2 tsp lemon juice
For the Lemon Dressing:
- 50ml extra-virgin olive oil
- Juice of 1½ lemons
Method:
- For the rosemary tarator, soak bread and walnuts in milk to soften (4-5 minutes). Squeeze excess milk from bread and transfer to a blender with walnuts.
- Add egg, herbs, capers and anchovies, blend to combine, and then add oil in a thin stream to form a rustic sauce. Add lemon juice and season to taste, set aside. Tarator will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to a week.
- For lemon dressing, whisk ingredients in a bowl, season to taste and set aside.
- Snip the sardine backbones at both ends of the cavity and remove ribs with your fingers (they lift out very easily).
- Combine preserved rind, raisins and herbs in a bowl, season to taste, then stuff into sardine cavities. Season to taste with a little salt and refrigerate until required.
- Heat a barbecue to high heat, brush sardines with olive oil and grill to just char and cook through (1-2 minutes each side).
- Transfer to a platter lined with nasturtium leaves, spoon lemon dressing over and serve with rosemary tarator.
For those in the Sydney area, Kitchen By Mike have a brand new family meal food box, the perfect delivery to arrive on Father’s Day. All the favourites, delivered to your door. All meals are designed to feed 4 adults very comfortably or a family of 5. We want to bring a little bit of Kitchen By Mike to you and take the stress out of cooking. Really good food, made really easy.
Box to include:
- Mike’s Famous Sourdough Bread
- Red Lentil Dahl (Vegan)
- Ocean Trout Fillets Yakitori
- Butternut Squash, Black Bean and Sprout Enchiladas
- Beef Stew, Red Wine and Mushroom
- Sticky Toffee Pudding