Some people love CANNED SARDINES and some people hate them, even if they often appreciate their tinier anchovy cousins. And how about using sardines as a filling for puff-pastry appetizers, combined with pickled red onions, preserved lemon, capers, pickled green peppercorns and black olives and a few fresh herbs ?
The combination of oilier sardines with colorful and pickled elements will brighten and lighten the overall flavors, to create a healthy appetizer with a fresher taste.
The preparation is relatively simple because you can buy all the ingredients separately and assemble them or pickle your own onions quickly and keep a larger batch in the fridge for salads and sandwiches and make your own puff-pastry, if you want a thicker and/or larger sheet (see my easy recipe here, using a food-processor). Just try not to overstuff them or it will be harder to fold them over and seal them.
And remember to work with chilled puff-pastry, even if you have to chill it several times as you are preparing these appetizers, because warm and soft puff-pastry is impossible to work with.
That’s it for my short story about little sardines, so give it a try and enjoy.
And maybe you can make them for next Saturday since it’s APRIL FOOL’S DAY (which is called April Fish day in French) … :)
