If you’ve written off sardines based on a fear of the silvery supermarket version sold in tins, then you’ve probably never had the privilege of tasting the real deal: fresh, big, fat sardines, salted, oiled and grilled outdoors until the skins are charred. These “Sardinhas Assadas” are a Portuguese summer staple, as much a national signature as gelato is in Italy and crepes are in France.  And they are absolutely nothing like the kind you get from a can.  Well-grilled, they are packed with smoky flavor and not the least bit fishy-tasting.  

Not that I have anything against canned sardines.  Quite the contrary: I have grown to appreciate canned sardines, which is a good thing; a 3oz serving of the canned variety (with bones) has 38% of the daily value of calcium, in addition to a full day’s worth of heart-brain-and eye-protective omega-3 fats. Sardines are also one of the rare natural food sources of Vitamin D, an essential nutrient that many (most?) Americans may be deficient in, according to a handful of recent studies; that same 3oz serving has well over 100% of the recommended daily intake.  But if you’ve been unable to acquire a taste for the canned version of these swimmingly healthy fish, the fresh variety are worth giving a second look.  After all, sardines are low on the food chain and reproduce rapidly (one might say they’re like the bunnies of the marine world), making them a very sustainable fish option in a sea (literally) of overfished and endangered seafood options.  Being low on the food chain also means being low in mercury and PCBs, which makes sardines an especially smart choice for pregnant women looking to meet their recommended fish intake goals to support brain development in their bundles of gestating joy.  

Sadly, the USDA does not publish nutrition data for fresh sardines, and I don’t quite trust the random data floating around the internet, so it’s probably safe to assume that fresh sardines more or less compare to canned on the Vitamin D and omega-3 front (perhaps slightly less, since you’ll be removing the skin, where many of the fish oils are stored), but will have considerably less calcium since you’ll be removing the bones before eating.  Ready to give them a try?

When the skin is blackened and bubbled over about 50% of its surface, it's time to eat!

How to make Portuguese Sardinhas Assadas

I’ll admit that I’m a relative latecomer to the world of grilled sardines, so I consulted my friend Peter (of Morel mushroom-hunting fame) so that we could all benefit from his vast sardine-grilling experience. His recipe and sardine-grilling tips follow below.  

Buy fresh sardines.  Here in the New York area, Whole Foods sells them, and you can buy them pre-gutted.  (Chances are, you’ll encounter wild-caught sardines from the Pacific Northwest, which the Monterrey Bay Aquarium deems to be a ‘best choice’ from both a health and sustainability standpoint.)  If you’re planning to grill them, leave intact the skin, scales, heads and tails. (You will easily deal with this when the fish is cooked and on your plate.)  You can also buy frozen sardines, in which case you would thaw them before proceeding. Peter says to plan on about 6 fish per person, but it will vary widely by fish size and appetite size.

Sprinkle the fish with coarse salt and rub on some olive oil. Lay the fish out on a piping hot grill.  (The fire/heat should be hot enough to give their skin a good char quickly enough such that the fish don’t dry out.)  Peter recommends grilling the fish for around 5 minutes before flipping, and further suggests that we not be afraid to give our fish a good char. Most of the recipes online, he laments, show sardines not nearly grilled enough for his taste.  For a visual guide, see the photo above; those fish are just about done.  When they have an even char on their skin, they are ready to eat.

Next: Remove the sardines from the grill and peel the charred top skin off.  Insert a knife along the backbone near the tail and work the top fillet off the bones. Remove the top fillet and set it next to your roasted pepper salad (more about that later). Next, insert your knife under the backbone, grab hold of the tail, and separate the  tail, bones and head in one peeling motion away from the bottom filet.  You will be left with a head, bones and tail that remind you of the cartoon fish from Tom & Jerry when you were a kid.  

Finally, eat the filets. You will smile. Traditionally, Portuguese sardines are served with a roasted green pepper salad.  To do as the locals do, Peter recommends placing green peppers on the fire until the skin turns black and bubbles over the whole pepper. When they are well roasted and cooled, skin and seed them under running water, slice the peppers up, then toss with sea salt and some sliced sauteed onion.  Dress with a simple dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar, and  pinch of thyme dressing.  And if you’re looking for a nice white wine to pair them with, might I suggest a New York State chardonnay?  And don’t forget drink a toast to my friend for the fantastic sardine tutorial.  (Obrigado, Peter!)

No related posts.

So... you from around here?

Amid the excitement surrounding St. Patrick’s Day this week, a long-awaited milestone quietly took effect on March 16, but was celebrated widely by food safety advocates.  Federal “Country of Origin Labeling” legislation (or, “COOL,” in hip DC-parlance) mandated by the Farm Bill finally took effect, despite longstanding protests from the meat industry.

Although the law leaves a lot up to the discretion of food producers and marketers, it does require that unprocessed food items be labeled with their country of origin.  So for example, it would cover fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, ground beef/whole muscle meat, fish, fresh poultry and nuts…but not foods like bagged spinach, bacon, or frozen chicken nuggets.  In addition, seafood must be labeled by its method of production as either farm-raised or wild-caught.

So what should we make of this?

Well, for starters, it will make things easier for aspiring locavores.  You’ll know where all of your produce, meat and fish come from, which can help guide your choices if you’re trying to eat more locally.  (Though honestly, most of us didn’t need federally-mandated labeling legislation to know that our bananas aren’t from around these here parts, or that those big red tomatoes available in the dead of winter weren’t grown nearby.)

Personally, I’m most interested in this legislation as it pertains to fish.

Did anyone else catch that article that the New York Times did on the Chinese fish industry back in 2007?  It highlighted a (growing) problem of banned carcinogens, illegal antibiotics, pesticides (including DDT) and additives that were showing up in imported Chinese seafood, which according to the article comprised 22% of all seafood sold in the US.  (My guess is that percentage is even higher now.)  And while the FDA does routinely inspect samples, it only ends up checking a measly 1% of all imported food, meaning that unsafe fish are almost certainly finding their way into our food supply and onto our plates.  The problem up until now has been that there was no way to know where your fish came from, unless your supermarket volunteered the information.

Of course, labeling only helps us make better decisions about what to buy if it’s truthful.  (Too bad they didn’t name the legislation the Truthful Country of Origin Labeling Act, but I guess T’COOL wasn’t as catchy.)  In another brilliant fish-related expose, the New York Times sent samples of fish, purchased at various New York stores and labeled as “wild,” to an independent laboratory to verify whether they were indeed wild.  (About 90% of all salmon in the U.S. is farm-raised, which explains why wild salmon routinely costs 3-5x more than farmed.) The analysis found that only ONE of the eight samples tested positive for being wild; all of the others were overpriced, farm-raised imposters.  And they were being sold by some pretty snooty places, I may add.

Sigh.  As if the fish counter wasn’t already fraught with enough anxiety about what to purchase, between the mercury and the PCBs…. and now the added layer of wild-caught vs. farmed, and countries of origin to contend with.  What’s an omega-3 loving pescatarian to do?

Well, there are no easy answers.  But here are some things that I do.

1. At the risk of being sued by the Chinese fish industry, I will say that I don’t buy any seafood imported from China.  Period.  It’s never been a problem at Whole Foods, but I’ve passed on the tantalizingly-inexpensive fish sold at BJ’s wholesale club for precisely this reason.  Also, be sure to check the label on frozen seafood–like shrimp and scallops–as these often come from Asia and may possibly come from China specifically.
2. Download the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch guide, which combines a multitude of factors, including safety AND sustainability, in recommending the best seafood picks.  (The guides are even customized by geographic region).  The list gets updated frequently, as trends in overfishing change fish stocks dramatically, so make sure to check back every few months for an updated list.  Alternatively, you can download it to your iPhone so that its always with you when shopping.  You may be surprised to see that there are plenty of farmed fish varieties that make the cut as far as safety and sustainability go, so wild isn’t automatically the best choice in all circumstances.
3. Consider canned fish.  Canned salmon is almost universally wild-caught, low in mercury/PCBs and usually Alaskan.  As for tuna, look for products labeled  “troll,”  “hook and line” or “pole” caught, as they are the most sustainable.   (If you can afford to spend $5 on a can of tuna during a recession, then check out a brand called American Tuna and support their sustainable fishing practices. Your financial investment will buy you the peace of mind that your tuna comes from the US, and was caught using very sustainable practices.)  And sardines are making a huge comeback these days, with stores offering fancy, European-style versions bathed in swanky sauces…. and chefs embracing them for sandwiches and salads.  Today’s sardines are not the tinny, unsexy cast-offs you may recall.  They are worth a second look (and taste!)
4. See what your farmer’s market has to offer. Here in New York, there are vendors who sell locally-caught fish and scallops at the Union Square greenmarket, for prices on par with what’s being sold right across the street in Whole Foods.

So next time you’re in the supermarket, check out the new labels across the store and let me know what you make of it all; I’d love to know whether they change your buying habits in any way!

No related posts.

Canned salmon cleans up real nice in grandma's famous croquettes

It’s still heart awareness month, so I’ve decided to send some love to a heart-healthy pantry item that seems to get so little of it: canned salmon.

When I was young, my Grandma Esther used to make Salmon Croquettes–which are basically like crab cakes for the kosher set. My dad apparently loved them, though truth be told, I was never a huge fan. But I recently came across her old handwritten recipe, and decided that it was worth giving them a try with my more refined adult palate. And I’m glad I did! They were darn tasty: mild-flavored, with a slightly springy, pancake texture, in contrast to a more meaty texture that you’d expect from an actual salmon burger. They are a perfect brunchy, lunchy or light suppery food, and would go well on a bed of greens as the protein on a salad, or alone as an appetizer served with your favorite fancy mustard, gingery salad dressing, horseradish sauce or dill-infused condiment.

2012 update: I made this recipe for my 13-month old babies, and they loved it!  It’s a great way to serve fish to picky, carb-loving tots, since the texture is sort of cakey/bready/springy rather than meaty; cut up into bite-sized pieces, it looks like bread or pancake.  For babies, I’d recommend using boneless, skinless canned salmon to keep the texture smoother for safety’s sake.

Canned salmon is almost always from wild-caught salmon, which means it tends to have a higher content of heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Most of the salmon you eat at restaurants or buy from the market is farm-raised, which means the fish are fed industrially-produced, grain-based fishmeal instead of their natural diet. The result is that farmed fish tends to have much lower levels of healthy omega-3 fats.   According to the smart people at Tufts University, 4 oz of canned salmon contains 2.2g of omega-3 fats, compared with 1.7g in an equivalent portion of fresh or frozen cold-water salmon–that’s 30% more per serving! Note: the current recommendation is to eat 1.1g (women) to 1.6g/day (men), or 7-11g per week, which means 4oz of canned salmon will provide 2 day’s worth of the average woman’s requirements.

Also, canned salmon is an excellent non-dairy source of calcium, assuming you eat the teensy-tiny, wispy bones…which you can do without really even noticing it. (But take out the larger, more visible bones because they can be a choking hazard.)  And lest you think calcium is good for your bone health only, I should mention that calcium is involved in every muscle contraction your body makes. And last time I checked, your heart was a big, ol’ muscle that does a lot of contracting. Which means it has to rob your bones for calcium if you’re not eating enough to keep blood levels steady. A 4 oz portion of canned salmon with bones has about 200mg of calcium, or 20% of the RDA for most adults. If you’re squeamish about encountering the bones when you open the can, they do sell boneless, skinless canned salmon. Buy that and work your way up to the bone-in kind for the extra calcium. You’ll still get the omega-3 benefits, and no one will think any less of you for it.

There’s more! Wild canned salmon is lower in mercury and toxins like PCBs than even farmed salmon, (which is still reasonably low), placing it among the safer fish choices you can make for yourself, your kids, and the pregnant women in your life.

And let’s be honest, how often are there fresh, wild-caught salmon fillets in your refrigerator when you have a hankering for an easy, healthy dinner that’s not chicken…again. Canned salmon is a very convenient food to have on deck for those occasions.

Are you feeling the love yet?

So in memory of my beloved Grandma Esther, I am sharing an updated version of her recipe, which is true to the original except for the part about cooking it in “deep hot fat” until golden brown. Oh, grandma. Deep, hot fat was so 20th century…

Recipe: Grandma’s Salmon Croquettes

(Yield: 10 croquettes, which will be more crab-cake sized than burger-sized)

1 tall (15 oz) can pink salmon. Grandma wrote to “use everything but the bones”, meaning just pick out the large, visible bones and leave everything else.  (Alternatively, you can use two 6 oz cans of boneless, skinless salmon… it’s faster and works just as well.)

1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk* or plain kefir (or other plain cultured yogurt drink)

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup flour or breadcrumbs (Preferably whole wheat;  you may use a gluten-free version of either if you’re avoiding wheat, as I did.)

1/4 tsp baking soda

Salt and pepper

Olive or canola oil for cooking (amount will depend on size of your pan… I used 1 TBSP per batch of 3-4 croquettes in a non-stick pan and it worked fine.)

(* C’mon… who actually has buttermilk laying around the house? Here’s an easy substitute that I used: combine 1 TBSP lemon juice or vinegar with enough milk to make 1 cup total. Let sit for 5 minutes and then use as you would buttermilk.  Note this recipe only calls for half of this amount.)

Mix salmon, seasonings and eggs. Add buttermilk, flour/breadcrumbs and baking soda and stir until well-blended. In a non-stick pan, heat a small amount of oil (just enough to cover the cooking surface…~ 1.0-1.5 TBSP for a medium-sized pan) until nice and hot. Drop batter with a spoon and pan fry until bottom is golden brown; flip each croquette and cook second side for an additional minute or two until its firm and also nice and brown. Drain on a paper towel and serve.  Note: you can serve these hot, warm or cold.

Nutrition info (approximate; assumes 3 TBSP oil used for frying, and doesn’t account for blotting some oil off after cooking):

1 croquette contains approximately: 140 calories, 11g protein, 4.5g carbohydrate, 9g fat.

1 croquette also has approximately 0.7g of omega-3 fats, so a serving of 2 croquettes (1.4g of omega-3′s) would meet the average woman’s recommended daily intake and come very very close to meeting a man’s recommended intake. Also, 1-2 croquettes, served on a nice bed of greens and vegetables with a low-fat condiment, would make a very good low-carbohydrate meal for someone with diabetes.

Other recipes:

If my grandma’s recipe is too 20th-century for you, Ellie Krieger has a 21st-century Asian-inspired one where she calls the croquettes “cakes” and serves them with a creamy ginger-sesame sauce. But there are plenty of other ways to use canned salmon, too. You can make salmon salad just like you’d make tuna salad, but you may want to squeeze some fresh lemon into it as well. Stick some in a crepe with scrambled eggs and cheese for a french-style brunch… or skip the crepe and use it in an omelet. The web is full of recipes for salmon burgers, which are a perfect way to use canned salmon, and there are variations ranging from Rachael Ray’s bunless salmon burger served on caesar slaw to the manly Jammin’ Salmon Burgers with Dill Mayonnaise (I’d go easy on the mayo for this one to keep it healthier, and use a canola or olive oil mayo instead of the regular soybean-oil-based Hellman’s kind. Better yet: use a dijon or whole grain mustard instead.)

NPR Kitchen Window did a nice piece on canned salmon last year, so check out this link to learn more about the benefits of canned salmon as they relate to mercury content, some tips for cutting the ‘fishier-than-tuna’ flavor (that’s what the lemon juice is for), and some links to family-friendly recipes for things like penne with salmon and peas.

In summary: canned salmon is pink, wild and cheap. It’s sort of like the Cyndi Lauper (circa 1980) of canned fish. So really… what’s not to love?

No related posts.