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As you all may have heard, the COP21 United Nations Conference for Climate Change is taking place in Paris until December 11, 2015. The countries and their governments will try to come to some common and binding agreements to control climate change and save the planet (& us). The world is waiting ! … Many NGO’s and associations are also participating and what I’ve learned (from a humble food perspective) is that we need to eat less meat (delicious but very harmful to the environment in general) and more vegetables and grains and fish (less harmful and better for you). Here’s a simple and inexpensive fish dinner you can prepare with aromatic salt. Some of you may already have access to these salts whether they are smoked, with herbs, citrus, seaweed etc., but they’re also quite easy to make in advance and store away. The recipe here uses only 1 type of vegetable (onions which are inexpensive like potatoes) and sardines (another inexpensive fish choice) but you can decide what to use. The oven-broiled fish and onions dinner is enough for 2 and the aromatic salt recipe is enough for 2-3 uses or 2-3 times more quantities of fish and vegetables. It’s a good idea to always have some around and cut your cooking time in half … Like I said : EAT MORE FISH & VEGETABLES ! :)

broiled sardines with lemon & herbs aromatic salt

03.12.2015

2+

ingredients

  • 500 grams fresh sardines (about 6 large)
  • 500 grams yellow peeled onions (7 medium)
  • 55 grams olive oil (1/4 cup)

aromatic salt (makes over ½ cup, which is enough for 2-3 times)

  • 2 tbsp lemon zest (from 2 lemons)
  • 2 tbsp fresh rosemary needles
  • 4 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 8 tbsp coarse sea salt (1/2 cup)
  • optional : add 1-2 tbsp chopped fresh dill and 1 tsp ground black pepper (but I didn’t this time)

instructions

  • combine the lemon zest, rosemary needles, flat-parsley leaves and coarse salt in a food processor and pulse until finer and well mixed and set aside
  • peel the 7 onions, slice 6 onions in half and 1 onion into thinner smaller slivers (for stuffing the sardines)
  • preheat the oven to 200°C with the rack in the middle
  • cover onion half-slices with 2 tbsp of olive oil and sprinkle with 2-4 tbsp of aromatic lemon & herb salt and bake for 15 minutes
  • clean your fish, slice the underside, remove the insides and rinse with cold water and let drain
  • sprinkle the insides and outsides of your sardines with 4 tbsp aromatic salt and fill each with onion slices
  • remove the roasting dish with baked half-onions from the oven and add the sardines in between
  • place oven rack towards the top and bake the sardines (with the half-baked half-onions too) for 5-7 minutes on each side (total baking time 10-14 minutes)
  • remove from oven and serve with baby lettuce salad spears (see recipe here).

note : reserve the remaining lemon & herb aromatic salt in a small jar in the refrigerator for next time !