Oh, and...

[venta]

Since you lot seem to be a mine of culinary information, here's another one:

What does one do with anchovies ? It came as a bit of a surprise to me a while back to discover I like them - marinated in oil and various other Mediterranean things, they bear no resemblance to the nasty, dried up cadavers one encounters on pizzas.

I usually just eat them with bread, or I suppose you could include them in antipasti. Last night I experimentally ate some with a leek and lemon risotto, and... well. It was edible, and I'm not dead. But it didn't really work, and I won't be repeating the exercise.

The anchovies have rather a sharp taste, and I can't really think of things that they'd go well with. Anyone got any suggestions ?

Comments

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

White anchovy fillets are the bestest things in the world. I found a supplier a while ago that would sell them at 15 quid for a kilo, and so managed to get through quite few of them...

They're best by themselves, with a little bread, maybe some artichoke hearts. Or grilled lightly. But if you put them into sauces and stews, they give a subtle richness to the proceedings...

Or you could make anchoiade with them, which is God's gift to toast...

[venta.livejournal.com]

Bread-and-artichoke-hearts has been my favoured approach to anchovies til now. Recently Waitrose had a special offer on all their marinated-stuff, so I got the anchovies, some artichokes and some marinated grilled aubergine for merely very expensive instead of ludicrous :)

What sort of sauces/stews? Wouldn't they make it rather sour and salty ?

anchoiade

You're using big words again :) However, I managed to operate google myself this time. Anchovy cream ? Is that similar to the stuff which gets sold as Gentleman's Relish ? I was always disappointed by GR - my mum swears by it on toast (specially under scrambled eggs), but I never really got on with it.

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

What sort of sauces/stews? Wouldn't they make it rather sour and salty ?

Dark, rich ones that take a long time to cook - beef or lamb or game. They do add a bit of salt, so you just need to compensate by adding less salt later on! And the acidity boils off while it cooks, so there's no big worry there.

Anchoiade is basically tapenade made with anchovies rather than olives. It's more coarse than Patum Peperium (which is fantastic stuff, and your mater is spot on with the eggs thing!), but is otherwise pretty similar. Reminds me of long, hot, lazy days on the Riviera, looking out over the Med and drinking pastis...

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

Oh - and I forgot - caesar and nicoise salads call for anchovies! :-)

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

Anchovies will overpower something subtle like lemon, and you don't want a lot of salt in a lemom based risotto (I would have suggested smoked salmon and/or mascapone, variant on the recipe for lemon and asparagus risotto we use).

I've never found the brown dried up ones packed in oil to be particularly acidic, and I do like them on pizza. The white anchovies are frequently pickled. As Mr Tom suggests, both kick serious bottom in the right salad - add to your whole anchovies and artichoke hearts lots of big parmesan shavings.

I hate mayonnaise, so normally I don't like potato salad - but I have this great recipe for a potato salad that uses olive oil, chilli, pine nuts, spring onions and herbs. Adding some whole sundried tomatos and anchovies may be really nice... hmmm...

Pizzas and Anchovies

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

The last time we went to Pizza Express in Farnham TheGreenLady ordered one of the vegetarian pizzas and it came (eventually) with an anchovy plonked on the top.

We were intrigued by the concept of a vegetarian anchovy....

The service was also dire (despite the fact the place was half empty)

Needless to say we swapped allegiance to Pizza Piazza on all subsequent visits to Farnham for pizza...

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

As long as you chop them very small, anchovies are a great way to add body to any tomato-based sauce. They're one of the main ingredients in Worcestershire sauce, so you can (within reason) add them to almost anything you would WS. If you leave the pan on a medium hob to get quite hot, then add olive oil, you can then put finely chopped anchovies in once the oil starts to shimmer. If they're small enough, they'll actually melt away.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Melt ? Blimey.

I know WS is made with anchovies, but it tastes completely different...

What does your foody mum do, by the way ? Just curious, as my mum writes a cookery column and various foodie features for the newspaper she works for, so I've spent my entire life being a guinea pig for experimental recipes :)

Re:

[stompyboots.livejournal.com]

Me too!

My mum writes a food column in the States, does a bit of freelance work for the food scetions of American papers, and maintains a website on where to get non-American food in Washington. She's also doing some radio cookery thing, and is trying to get a cookbook off the ground. Not bad for someone who doesn't actually eat!

How are you so slender with a foodie mum? It's not fair!

[venta.livejournal.com]

radio cookery thing

Sauté your transistor lightly in olive oil...

Sounds exciting - and like it's a full-time job. My mum works for a very little newspaper, so she's cookery columnist, but also farming editor, business editor, and possibly she delivers the things too :)

<ducks and runs in case she's reading this>

How are you so slender with a foodie mum? It's not fair!

Good luck, I think - well, it certainly isn't good judgement. I think I won a fast metabolism in life's draw - which is only fair, because I sure as hell didn't get a decent immune system :(