Fresh Sardines: Healthy, Sustainable and Delicious!

Friday, June 24th, 2011 | posted by mike

Mention sardines and a lot of people think of the fishy little guys in the tins. Fresh sardines are a whole different ballgame.

I first experienced  them years ago while on vacation in Portugal. Lying on the beach in Lagos I noticed an amazing smell coming from behind a huge boulder. Following the plume, I came upon a young couple sitting next to an open fire with a large jug of red wine, a loaf of crusty bread and in a hinged grill basket sizzling over the fire was a mess of sardines! I waved to them and turned to leave them alone when, to my surprise and great fortune, the dude waved me over to join them! That, I have to say was one of the simplest, most amazing and delicious little meals I’ve ever had. I’m sure the people and the atmosphere had a lot to do with it but the sardine’s flavor was incredible. Salty, smokey, juicy, and rich with a fairly full flavor—but at the same time a delicate nuttiness to them.

Monahan's Seafood Market | Fresh Whole SardinesThere are several fish that are marketed as “sardines” in the world. Most are herring relatives like Pilchard, Shad, Brisling, Sprat and other fish in the clupeidae family. We sell mainly Mediterranean from Portugal or Greece, but on occasion we get nice fish from northern California.

Besides the  flavor, ritual and romance of eating sardines, these little fish have a lot of other good things going for them. One thing is that they are super good for you. Packed with essential Omega 3 fatty acids, high in protein, calcium and tons of other minerals and vitamins—sardines are great for your heart, your head, your joints and your overall well being. Because these young fish are so small, low on the food chain and live mainly on plankton they are very low in contaminates such as PCBs and metals. Another plus is there are lots of them out there. Sardines reproduce several times a year and there’s a big sustainable bio-mass of them that are less prone to overfishing than most other species.

Healthful, sustainable and pure. Another one of nature’s wild perfect foods.

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Grilled Sardines with Caponata

Friday, June 24th, 2011 | posted by wendy

  • 12 fresh sardines scaled, gilled and gutted
  • 6 T olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 2 large or 3 smaller garlic cloves finely chopped
  • 2 celery stalks, Sliced
  • 1 medium eggplant 1/4 inch diced
  • 1/2 cup pitted green olives with pimentos halved
  • 2 T capers
  • 2 nice ripe tomatoes chopped (or 1/2 cup canned Italian San Marzano tomatoes)
  • 1  1/2 T red wine vinegar
  • 1 t sugar
  • 2 T pine nuts, toasted
  • Kosher salt (coarse)

Caponata
Heat 2 T olive oil in pan and add celery, onion , fry for 2 minutes. Then add garlic and basil and fry for another 3–4 minutes until nicely browned. Transfer to a bowl.

Add remaining oil to pan and fry the eggplant for 5–8 minutes or until golden, then add to the celery onion mix with the capers and olives.

In a saucepan simmer the tomatoes, vinegar and sugar for 15 minutes. Stir in the eggplant mixture and pine nuts.

Sardines
Fire up grill until coals are white (or, if using a gas grill, set to medium heat). Lightly salt salt sardines and let them sit for 10 minutes while grill is heating up. Wipe salt off fish and lightly brush with olive oil. Place fish on clean oiled grill and grill for 4 minutes a side or until fish is just opaque at the bone.

To serve, spoon Caponata (room temperature is OK) onto plates and place sardines on top.

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Festa de Sette Pesci (The Feast of the Seven Fishes)

Friday, December 10th, 2010 | posted by mike

For hundreds of years, La Vigilia di Natale (the Feast of the Seven Fishes) has been an Italian family Christmas Eve tradition. The meal of at least seven different fish and shellfish started in southern Italy, including Sicily, spread to northern Italy and is now enjoyed by Italians, and even some of us non-Italian fish lovers, all over the world.

The significance of this tradition is open to debate—some say seven fishes are served to symbolize the seven sacraments, some others refer to the seven deadly sins, the seven gifts from the holy spirit, or maybe the seven days of creation. Whatever the significance, La Vigilia is a wonderful tradition that ‘s had a strong religious and cultural meaning for a long, long time.

Every family has its own special menu usually handed down through generations. Over the 30+ years I’ve been in business, I’ve noticed a lot of common selections for the feast. Eel (we bring them in live for the holidays) is a biggy since it’s considered such a delicacy in Italy. Sardines are always popular and we get beautiful fresh whole sardines from Portugal. Bacala (salt cod) is a must for a lot of families. Our tiny sweet manila clams are very similar to the Italian vongole and are great in the classic dish Spaghetti con le Vongole. Smelt, squid, octopus are popular also. Often a fancy whole roasted fish or maybe swordfish would be served.

Chef Mario Batali says that La Vigilia is “What Italians do when they say they’re fasting,” which is kind of hysterical because this penitential fasting tradition has been turned into a major feast. For those of us who were born into less delicious culinary traditions, there’s no reason that we can’t have some fun and try our own feast of the seven fishes on Christmas Eve.

Italian food is some of the world’s best and they do amazing things with fish and shellfish. Give it a go, we can help! To get the feast started, here’s my secret stuffed clam recipe.

More great Feast of the Seven Fishes recipes in this excellent article from Saveur.

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Skate Wings and Slime Eels and Sea Robins...Oh My!

Friday, October 29th, 2010 | posted by mike

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When we opened our market in 1979, America’s fish diet was fairly limited. Mild white fish such as scrod (small codfish), sole, Great Lakes fish (whitefish, lake trout, walleye, perch and smelt), were popular. High-end items such as lobster and king crab were big. Brave souls might branch out and try something a little different like swordfish or halibut—but for the most part, the big sellers were pretty tame and mild. Tuna was just in the process of moving from a mostly canned product to a high-end sushi grade fish. Sardines and anchovies hadn’t yet found their way out of the tin. Squid and octopus were from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Being in a college town, people from all over the world would come in and request some pretty weird, wild but interesting stuff. We soon learned that no matter how small, fat or lean, or large, or ugly or slimy or pokey or bizarre— someone in the world knew just what to do with it and make it taste great. If a Japanese customer wanted raw sea slug guts or live sea urchin, herring roe on kelp, giant geoduck clams (with the foot long foot) or monkfish liver, we’d find it. Need a live eel for Italian Christmas dinner? How about a live 10 lb snapping turtle for turtle soup or a 6 ft. long octopus?

I began to realize all those years ago, that maybe there was no such thing as a “trash fish” or even an underutilized species. Fish that used to be thrown overboard by the U.S. fishermen include skate (very popular in France & Korea), Dogfish (sand shark, used for fish & chips in England), Sea Robin (a.k.a. French Rascasse, a key fish in bouillabaisse), Monkfish (which had to be marketed as “poor man’s lobster” in order to sell and get people to even try it).

Small bony fish like sardines, whiting and croakers and darker fish like bluefish & mackerel all are great eating fish. Carp, the ultimate American trash fish is loved in Asia and is a major sports fish in Europe. So, the next time you’re at the fish market and you see something a little unusual, take a walk on the wild side, try something new. We’ve got recipes for almost anything.

Here’s the classic French preparation for Skate with Caper Brown Butter.

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Grilling on "The Big Green Egg" at Downtown Home & Garden

Friday, July 16th, 2010 | posted by mike

Our joint grilling demo last Sunday at Downtown Home & Garden was fantastic! A beautiful day on the sidewalk on lovely Ashley Street in front of one of Ann Arbor’s coolest businesses, grilling some of our seafood favorites on The Big Green Egg. I was a bit nervous about doing a demo on a grill that I’ve never used before, but owner, Mark Hodesh assured me that there is nothing to it. And he was right!

This grill is amazing. It’s based on an ancient Asian clay oven kiln like a tandori…thick ceramic that holds in the heat and keeps a steady and easily adjusted temperature. A small amount of natural charcoal keeps heat for many hours because the grill is so thick and well-sealed. Mark started the grill at 9am and it kept a steady temp until 1:30.

Everything that we demonstrated and sampled came out great (and we cooked a big variety). Sardines with course salt & olive oil, barbequed oysters, squid satay with Thai peanut sauce, warm grilled octopus salad, mackerel teriyaki, cedar planked salmon with Irish whiskey maple glaze, swordfish with rosemary-orange marinade, and an herb-wrapped and stuffed whole black sea bass.

We were kickin’ em out and everyone really seemed to enjoy the flavors and learned how easy seafood on the grill can be. The Big Green Egg really impressed everyone too—it was a pleasure to use it and it achieved great results.

One recipe that really seemed to resonate with the crowd was the grilled mackerel. So many people expect the dark fatty little fillets to be too full-flavored or even “fishy.” While mackerel has a good amount of flavor, when it’s been filleted off the bone like we do here at the fishmarket, it’s a rich and buttery fish that holds up to flavorful sauces, rubs and marinade. It’s also inexpensive and sustainable and loaded with the miracle fats, Omega 3s. We used a teriyaki marinade, glazed the fish as it grilled with a teriyaki reduction, and garnished with some scallions and it was a hit! Mackerel is also fantastic with our Cajun rub and a kiwi-citrus glaze or a tomato-caper-balsamic relish…maybe even sweet Swedish mustard dill sauce and grilled new potatoes…the list goes on for this versatile fish, so ask us at the market if you want to try something new!

Big thanks to Mark Hodesh, Margaret Parker and the staff at Downtown Home & Garden for another fun event!

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Pan Fried Sardines

Friday, June 25th, 2010 | posted by wendy

1 # sardines (cleaned whole, heads on)
course kosher salt
good olive oil (enough to coat 1/8 inch in pan)
Drake’s batter mix or seasoned flour
salt & pepper

Lightly salt sardines and let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Dust in Drake’s (Drake’s is a seasoned combination of fine corn meal and wheat flour made in Marshall, Michigan and used in many restaurants. Chefs call it Duck Dust and it gives fried foods a nice golden brown coating).

Heat olive oil over med-high heat until sizzling hot (but not smoking). Fry sardines about 3 minutes a sice or until just opaque to the bone at the thickest part. Serve with a lemon.

Sardines are “finger food” just pick em up and then fillet them off the bone with your teeth.

Larger fish like bluegill or crappie can use a thicker batter. This can be achieved by first dipping in an egg & milk wash, then either dredging or shaking in a paper bag to coat.

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Whole Bluefish Roasted in Kosher Salt

Friday, June 18th, 2010 | posted by wendy

1 2-4 lb. bluefish*, gutted and gilled
1 lemon sliced in thin rounds
an assortment of herbs
black pepper
a few cloves of garlic
1-2 BOXES of Kosher Salt.

VIDEO of this recipe available on YouTube!

Preheat oven to 500°.

Pour a box of kosher salt into a bowl and combine with about a half cup of water. Mix together until it has a consistency of slightly damp sand. Put down a layer of this salt mixture into a roasting pan large enough to accommodate the fish.

Meanwhile, stuff the cavity of the fish with herbs, lemon, garlic and black pepper. Lay it across the salt layer, then bury the fish completely (using as much of the salt/water combo as necessary…you may need a second box of salt).

Roast salt encrusted fish for about 20 minutes, then check with an insta-read thermometer jammed through the salt and into the thickest part of the fish flesh. Once the temperature reads 125, break away the hardened sarcophogus of salt, brushing the skin clean, and simply carve the flesh from the first side of the fish. Once you reach the middle, you can pull out the main fish bone in one piece to access the second side of the fish encased in the bottom layer of salt.

Serve with Salpicon Sauce

*substitutes: Porgy, Snapper, Cod, Trout, Spanish Mackerel, Sea Bass, Fresh Sardines…pretty much any whole fish. Size will affect roasting time so use that thermometer!


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The WHOLE Fish (and nothing but the fish)

Thursday, June 17th, 2010 | posted by Monahan's

Ever prepare a whole grilled bronzini or a whole steamed walleye or black sea bass with ginger garlic scallions and maybe some black bean sauce? How about a whole baked snapper Vera Cruz with the famous tomato, green chili sauce or grilled orata stuffed with fennel? Ever taste the sweet, succulence of a whole grilled sardine with coarse salt and a good olive oil, or laid out a whole poached salmon served at room temperature with a cucumber yogurt dill sauce? Would you like to mix up the flavor and textures of a grilled trout with lemons, herbs and wrapped in pancetta? Have you experienced the satisfaction of whacking a whole salt-encrusted roasted bluefish and savored the moist richness trapped inside?

VIDEO: How to Roast a WHOLE Bluefish in Salt.

Pablo Picasso photographed by David Douglas Duncan

Many of us have “bone phobia” and wouldn’t dream of attempting to prepare the whole fish at home, but a little practice with a butter knife or a spoon and soon you’ll see that the fish will almost fillet itself as you gently slide the meat off the bone. If you pull the fins off the small bones under the fins will follow. The rib bones can be a little tricky but just take your time and the meat between them will be worth the effort.

Here are just a few advantages of serving the whole fish:

Flavor. Ever notice the extra flavor of a whole chicken that comes with roasting along with the fat in the bones and skin? It’s the same for fish.

Value. There’s more to a fish than just the two fillets! The head with the cheeks and collar have lots of extra meat.

Health. The fat in fish is where all the good stuff is. The head and belly are the richest parts of the fish—containing the most goodness, flavor and healthful Omega 3 fats. The bones of small whole fish such as smelt, sardine and anchovies are full of calcium.

Beauty. There’s nothing more beautiful or aesthetically pleasing than a simply garnished and perfectly presented whole fish on a platter.

The Ritual. The process of serving and eating the whole fish is like a special celebration. It forces you to take your time and appreciate, enjoy and savor every part of the fish.

Variety of Flavor & Textures. In China, the lady of the house is often served the cheeks because it really is the best part—firm textured, almost like a scallop. All the meat around the head has lots of flavor and texture going on. There is a nice chunk of firm (often darker) meat under the pectoral fin. The belly is always rich and you can work you way back to the leaner tail section.

At Monahan’s we’re always offering our customers lots of whole fish with recipes and ideas for every cooking method. Whether you’ve been eating fish off the bone your whole life or you’re a novice who wants to enhance your quality of life, we’ve got a fish for you. Come in and we’ll make it easy. We’ll even cook up a whole fish out of the case and serve it on a platter for lunch.

See you at the market!

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Eat More Fish— the ULTIMATE health food!

Thursday, April 8th, 2010 | posted by mike

Many studies through the years have shown that fish and shellfish have amazing nutritional benefits. Besides the fact that fish is high in protein, full of vitamins and minerals (like vitamin D, riboflavin B2, calcium, phosphorous, zinc, iron, iodine, magnesium, potassium and selenium) seafood contains the wonder fatty acids Omega 3s.

Around the time we opened the market in 1979, research studies by Danish investigators Dyerberg and Bang associated health benefits with the native diets of Greenland Eskimos. The health benefits of this regional diet came as a surprise for most researchers and clearly contradicted all the nutritional recommendations of the day. Greenland Eskimos commonly consumed 1 lb. of seal and whale meat daily—a relatively fatty diet. Despite the unusual pattern of eating, Greenland natives experienced less heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It was because of their high Omega 3 consumption from fish.

As research continued other great benefits were discovered. We now know that Omega 3s also are linked to lower risk of stroke, depression, high blood pressure, arthritis, mental decline with age and more. It seems that new benefits are discovered every year and the beauty is that these benefits can occur with as little as two fish meals per week.

All fresh water, ocean and shellfish contain some levels of Omega 3s, but the highest levels occur in the colder water, fattier species. The best are Salmon (especially wild king and silver salmon), mackerel, herring, sardines, bluefish, black cod, escolar, to name a few. I always knew there must be a reason that I’ve always felt so good after a nice fish dinner! Isn’t it great that the world’s most interesting, delicious, versatile, season and ever-changing food can also help us live healthier lives.

At Monahan’s we have lots of recipes for many of the high Omega 3 species, Here’s one that Nobu Matsuhisa has made famous in the U.S. This sweet and silky fish dish is easy, but needs a bit of planning as it requires at least 24 hours of marinating. Good news—we also can do the marinating for you…call to order and check for availability!

Recipe: Nobu Matsuhisa’s Black Cod with Miso

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