Anchovies

[slkinsey]

I wonder how the incredible e-gullet roasted cauliflower would taste as a pasta dish wth anchovies also?

Now, that would be tasty! Or, even if just eating as straight roasted cauliflower tossed with some anchovy butter and sprinkled with parsley and red pepper. Sigh... bergerka doesn't like anchovies.

Maybe a hard-boiled egg and anchovy sandwich is in order!

I made a bunch of different panini for a large gathering last month, and the marinated white anchovy, red onion and hard cooked egg tramezzino was the first one to go.

[JPW]

For me, it's a spread for bruschetta -

Mince the leeettlle fishies into a healthy pond of Olive oil, add minced garlic, diced toms, white beans, a splash o' lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes to taste.

Or just add whatever sounds good to you

Let combine for a couple of hours in the fridge. Serve on slices of a good baquette with your favorite NZ Sauvignon Blanc. It greatly helps if it's warm enough to sit out on the back dusk as the sun sets.......

[DaleJ]

I learned from my friend Gennaro Villella, an Umbrian world class chef, that one should never forget the "Strega", which is what he called anchovies. When making at my house, stuffed and rolled pork loin he added a half dozen or so oil packed anchovies along with onion, garlic, EVOO, etc. into the stuffing mix, which was chard based. They came through wonderfully. I never forget the Strega.

[Priscilla]

Oh I love anchovies too. And I am glad to see that even a NYT writer has had hit-or-miss luck with the much-recommended salt-packed. I've assumed, when I've gotten the slimy or the dry or the broken or the otherwise not-appealing salt-packed, that it was just me.

I love anchovies so much -- with pesto comes immediately to mind, either integrated or atop.

[Mabelline]

I have a veal leg roast recipe that is stuffed with anchovies and veal kidneys, then rolled and tied. It's slow roasted and when it's done the stuffings have just melted into the roast. We both love it. It's Austrian, I believe.

Love those little salty guys.

[ludja]

Thanks AlexP for your story growing up in Spain. What a nice memory.

Another favorite recipe is one I got from Marimar Torres' book, Catalan Country Kitchen. It is a red cabbage salad in which you cook the sliced cabbage in vinegar, water and salt; then let marinate in the fridge overnight. Then you make a puree of anchovies and olive oil and add this to the cabbage (squeezed of moisture). Add chopped parsely and black pepper. This is good warm or cold and is great along side roasted meats.

Edited February 18, 2004 by ludja (log)

[snowangel]

Yes, AlexP, thanks for sharing the memory. My folks visit my sister in Berkeley a couple of times a year, and they always return bearing anchovies.

I find all kinds of ways to use them, most noted above. My family says they hate them. Little did they know that that quick tomato sauce I whipped up last week to serve over pasta was a little weak or lacking, so in went some anchovie paste (pasted by me). They raved! I didn't tell. Nor, do I tell them how often I add to dressings, etc.

[Nick]

I've tried and tried to like anchovies. I'm ready to try again. What anchovies should I look for? Here in Maine there won't be a wide selection. Thanks.

[Pan]

In Malaysia, anchovies are called ikan bilis, and sambal ikan bilis is wonderful. One form some of you may have had them in is as one of the sambals in nasi lemak ("fatty rice").

[Pan]

Here are some links to sites with recipes:

Chili-Crisps Ikan Bilis and Peanuts

Nasi Lemak and Sambal Ikan Bilis

Spicy Ikan Bilis

That last one looks good, but good luck finding some of those ingredients in places like the U.S.

My search for "ikan bilis" also turned up various Malay-language recipes I won't bother linking to, and a site that I immediately dismissed because they claimed that:

"Nasi lemak (Malay) literally means `rice cooked in coconut milk'."

Nope, nice try. Lemak means fat, and santan means coconut milk. In fact, the dish does use rice cooked in coconut milk, though.

Most intriguing is this link to a product catalog page showing Knorr Ikan Bilis Stock Cubes! These are priced at .85 Ringgit per 2-cube packet and 2.20 Ringgit per 6-cube packet, but I doubt they deliver overseas!

[Stone]

What's a good brand of anchovies?

[ludja]

Here are some links to sites with recipes:

Chili-Crisps Ikan Bilis and Peanuts

Thanks for the links Pan.

When I looked at the recipes I realized I had had the "Chili-Crisps Ikan Bilis and Peanuts" before. A pan-Asian restaurant in SF-- Betelnut Peju Wu had this as an appetizer. I really liked it. (Not so pysched with the rest of the menu, but these were a stand out).

Can you buy these little anchovies in Chinese and/or Thai stores? Any tips on what to look for in buying these? Thanks!

[Pan]

Hmmm...I would just look for a bag of "Ikan Bilis" from Malaysia. Yes, a Thai store would be likely to have the same thing, probably in a Thai version, and there's nothing wrong with that. As long as they're dried and salted, they should be fine. Some Chinese stores have them, especially big ones like the Hong Kong Supermarket outlets in New York, which make sure to carry products from all Southeast Asian countries and to all Southeast Asian tastes. My perception is that the proportion of ethnic Chinese people in New York who come from Malaysia, Indonesia, and Vietnam has increased tremendously in the last decade, and I suspect the same is true in various other parts of the U.S. and Canada.

[mrbigjas]

If that picture and your descriptiongs are any indication, the little tiny dried anchovies like the ikan bilis you're talking about can also be found in Japanese and Korean stores--in Japanese they're called chirimen, and in Korean they're called myulchi. These are around an inch long--I have a bag of them in my freezer right now. A couple of teaspoons of them sauteed crisp in sesame oil with some hot pepper, used to wilt a watercress salad, is a beautiful thing.

[Pan]

Why do you freeze dried fish?

[slkinsey]

What's a good brand of anchovies?

Hmmm... Hard to say. In general, I look for the salt preserved variety in a glass jar. Failing that, I usually get marinated anchovies from the preserved fish counter in Fairway (right next to the appetizing counter).

I can't say that I have any anchovy brand awareness at all.

[formerly grueldelux]

Typical excellent article by Amanda Hesser, but I wonder about one thing. I thought the original caesar salad does not contain anchovies. She states her dislike of the "new" versions with the pungency of garlic poorly substituting for anchovy. But isn't this "new" version the original salad, and anchovies only a phase?

On re-reading, I suppose she doesn't directly address the ur-Caesar, but to me the passage still reads: caesar with anchovies - original and superior; without anchovies - newfangled and wrong.

-michael

[agnolottigirl]

Isn't the real question . . . what AREN'T anchovies good in?

I especially like almost neat (with EVOO, minced garlic, chopped parsley, and red pepper flakes) with good bread.

Also like them in a quick saute of steamed broccoli, garlic, sundried tomatoes, kalamata olives, and EVOO with some kind of chunky pasta (orichette, fusilli, medium-sized shells).

Have also made a killer steak sauce that involved anchovies, black pepper, and much-reduced chianti. Can't recall the specifics right now, but it was seriously good.

Mr. Agnolotti thinks he doesn't like them, but he has no idea how often he eats them in other things. . . and enjoys them. Ha.

[slkinsey]

Just got back from Pam Real Thai where we had, among other things, the anchovy rice with pork. Very tasty!

bergerka declared herself a convert... we'll see.

[ned]

I spent new years this year in a Spanish town called Cadaques. Learned lots about anchovies. Great ones come from a nearby town called Escala. Upon returning to NYC I quickly felt a need for them and went on a search. www.latienda.com has them as well as fantastic spanish olive oil.

The best preparation I had was in the boqueria in Barcelona at a small lunch counter rumoured to be Ferran Adria's favorite spot. On a Spanish style baguette cut lengthwise was schmeared an avocado spread that I've guessed to be 2 pts avocado to one part olive oil run in the blender til smooth. Seasoned with s & p and maybe the slightest squeeze of lime. On top of the vibrant green is laid a beautiful fat reddish escalan anchovie.

[Susan in FL]

What are some of your favorite ways to eat these little gems?

This dip can be addictive, especially if you're a garlic lover and an anchovy lover. I got this from a Prodigy Food Board friend many years ago.

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 2-ounce can of anchovies, smashed, or to taste, or anchovy paste to taste

2 cloves of finely minced garlic or to taste

A dash of Worchestershire

Enough cream to make this a nice soft dip consistency

Mix all ingredients together and let it sit for a while for the flavors to marry.

Another favorite of ours is to lay one or two fillets on good bread and butter.

Our all time favorite anchovy snack is to eat them from the can, washing them down with beer.

We enjoy various anchovy sauces for pasta. An uncooked Puttanesca sauce might be our favorite of those, but often it's whatever we're eating at the time that is our favorite!

[phaelon56]

Over on the Dinner thread, hathor had a great suggestioin for me to try next time on my fresh mozzarella and tomato salad: mash some anchovies with fresh basil and a bit of the anchovy oil and use it as a dressing on the tomatoes. I'll be trying that this weekend. I like them straight from the jar/can and on all kinds of things but not on pizza.

[Malawry]

I love it when I order a salad and it comes garnished with a few anchovy filets. I break it up into little pieces with my fork and then try to get some into every bite of salad.

Jaleo, a tapas restaurant around town, does this great tomato bread with anchovies: toasted country-style bread, smeared thickly with this tomato concassee, and then topped with a few prime anchovies. Simple and terrific.

[fresco]

They're great on top of roasted red peppers.

[slbunge]

If you can find them fresh (you pretty much have to be coastal and either catch them yourself of butter up your fish-monger) they are fabulous gutted, marinated, and cooked over hot coals. Sardines are actually easier to prepare this way because they are larger.

In the height of the summer tomato season, a great tomato bread salad with olives, basil, and anchovy is one of my favorite meals.

In the winter, a nice pot of bagna cauda with vegetables and bread can be a nice appetizer for a dinner party with close friends.

Another favorite is thin crust pizza with a tangy tomato sauce, a few blobs of fresh mozzarella and white anchovy fillets. Yum.

I'm definitely part of the Anchovy Lover contingent.