Fish has always been my preferred meat of choice, so I was delighted when I discovered the canned sardine. As a kid, I used to eat them with saltine crackers. However, as I got older, I simply forgot about sardines. No one I knew ate them, so it was easy to forget they even existed.
Then came Hurricane Irene.
After watching a flurry of frenzied news reports predicting imminent doom, I decided to be safe and head out to the grocery store. I decided that canned sardines would be a tasty storm treat and headed home with a couple tins of Wild Planet sardines packed in extra virgin olive oil. I was thrilled to find that were even tastier than I remembered and fit perfectly into my anti-inflammatory diet. Sardines are rich in omega-3s and packed with calcium, especially if you eat the bones. I particularly like the Wild Planet brand because the fish are not overly soaked, and the fish are wild caught.
My sardine love affair continued. I now bring a can to lunch and munch happily away, sopping up the savory oil with two pieces of multigrain bread. It's a filling lunch that doesn't leave me overly full. I also appreciate that I don't need to refrigerate it, so it's a convenient option too.
A girl can only eat so much sardine straight from the can, though. Thus, I was pleasantly surprised to find an email today entitled "Your Perfect Sandwich" (from my perfect special someone) with a link to Alton Brown's Sherried Sardine Toast. It marries my love of avocado and sardine into a warm, open-faced sandwich. It's pretty tasty. I definitely recommend it! For a gluten-free alternative, these would work just as well on warm tortillas.
Next time I make these I think I'll play around with flavor combinations. Perhaps one with a drizzle of hot sauce. Or another with some crushed garlic. Tonight, I simply splashed an extra does of the sherry vinegar on top, and it was healthfully delicious. (Oh, by the way, it's definitely worth it to splurge the extra few dollars on sherry vinegar--the flavor is tart but with a wine undertone to cut the abrasiveness.)
