Recipe: Grilled Sardines, Basque Port Style
There is nothing better than simply grilled sardines in season. They are a social food—you don’t eat one, you have an afternoon’s worth—and they arrive crusted in a bloom of evaporated seawater.
Total Time: 20 minutes Serves: 4
- 1 cup kosher salt
- 10 cups room-temperature water
- 8 fresh Mediterranean, Greek or American sardines, rinsed, scaled, and optionally gutted
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- Japanese or Maldon smoked sea salt, for finishing (optional)
- Grilled bread, for serving
1. Make a brine: Combine kosher salt and water in a large bowl or other vessel and stir to dissolve. Add sardines and let stand 15 minutes. Remove fish from brine, discard brine and pat fish on both sides with paper towels until thoroughly dry. Rub sardines with oil on both sides.
2. Lightly oil an 8-inch wire-mesh strainer and place it directly on top of a burner on a gas stove. Turn burner on and allow screen to heat about 15 seconds. Place 4 oiled sardines on screen and then immediately lift screen 1-2 inches above flame to prevent burning sardines excessively. Return screen to burner and cook fish 1 minute on first side. Then, using tongs, carefully flip sardines and cook on the second side 30 seconds more. Expect some flames and crackling from the oily sardine juices that fall on the fire, and when flare-ups occur, pull screen away until flames die down, then move fish back to heat source. When fish are ready, transfer to a platter. Repeat until they are all cooked.
3. Sprinkle sardines with smoked salt and serve immediately with grilled bread for soaking up juices.
Originally posted in The Wall Street Journal