Sardines Escabeche

Name: Sardines Escabeche
Yield: Serves 3-4
Ingredients: flaked sea salt and ground black pepper; 3 tablespoons plain flour; 5 tablespoons light olive oil; a big handful of sultanas; 5-6 sprigs of fresh young thyme leaves, plus extra, to garnish; 4 small bay leaves; 2 big juicy oranges, unwaxed or well-scrubbed; 1½ good and careless tablespoons sherry vinegar; 6-8 stiff fresh sardines, scaled, gutted and degilled; 2 medium red onions; 1 teaspoon cumin seeds; 1 teaspoon coriander seeds; 40 g pine nuts; good olive oil, to finish

Preparation info

Serves
3-4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

What to Eat Now (Spring & Summer)

By Valentine Warner

Published 2009

About

All things sweet and sour please me greatly. This treatment of sardines tastes so good and makes a very pretty dish when set down outdoors for summer lunch. There are 8 in the bed and the little one says, ‘eat me.’

Ingredients

a big handful of sultanas
3 tablespoons plain flour
flaked sea salt and ground black

Fish course
Lunch
Pescatarian
Summer

Method

Soak the sultanas in just-boiled water for an hour or so. Sprinkle the flour on to a plate and season with a generous pinch of salt and a couple of twists of black pepper. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. The oil must be hot; otherwise by the time the fish is browned it will be overcooked. Roll the sardines in the flour, patting off any excess, and fry quickly i