Sardine stew...give it a go, honest!

It’s time to talk about the sardine. In my effort to eat fish sustainably and pick at the food chain from the bottom up, I fear the sardine is going to become a staple in my diet. I say fear because sardines can be a hard sell. Hard-packed in low grade oil, canned with skin and bones, these little guys can put even a hardened fish-lover like me off his salad.

Which is why step one in rediscovering the sardine is to buy and cook them fresh.

The quickest way to cook sardines is to slap them over hot coals. You don’t need to do much to them, just run them under cold water to get rid of the scales, sprinkle them with sea salt and put them on the grill. In southern Spain, they do this guts and all. You eat the fish like a cob, eating round the belly area and picking off moist chunks of salty, succulent flesh. You can’t beat this.

But having lunch at Pepe’s the other day, I tried a different sardine recipe, one that I’m going to share with you because it truly was delicious. It’s a sort of sardine stew, At first blush that sounds yucky, I know. But trust me, it works. And please, don’t judge by the photo. It’s not a great pic, it doesn’t do the dish justice, but dammit, it was the only one I had.

This is a variation on a traditional Spanish dish. It adds a powdered Moroccan spice mix called ras el hanout. There’s no definitive recipe for this blend, which you can mix yourself. Typically it would include cardamom, clove, cinnamon, ground chilli, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, peppercorns and turmeric. The easier alternative is to buy it mixed.

Read The Atlantic's Corby Kummer on sardines.

For more fish recipes, try the absolutely unrivalled book The River Cottage Fish Book

Sardine Stew

One kilo fresh sardines

Three large onions

Three large green peppers

Four cloves of garlic

Four large tomatoes

Salt and pepper

Ras el hanout

First step is to clean the fish, removing the head, guts and backbone to leave two fillets of flesh per fish. Take your time with this as the fewer bones you find in there (though some are inevitable), the better.

Step two is to slice the vegetables and chop the garlic. This is a layered dish and each strata has a bit of all the ingredients.

Coat a deep pot with a little olive oil and layer the bottom with onions, pepper, tomato and garlic. Add a layer of sardine fillets and sprinkle with half a teaspoon of ras el hanout. Add a little salt and pepper.

Repeat the process until all the ingredients are in the pot. Cover with a lid and place on a low to medium heat until the vegetables are soft. There’s no water in this. The juice comes from the vegetables.

Serve and eat with crusty bread.