Fish Heads & Rice

One of our favorite lunches at home is what we call fish heads and rice.  We aren't actually eating fish heads.  It's just what we call sardines.  We try to eat them at least once a week.  Are you aware of how good they are nutritionally?

Sardines are so good for you!  

They promote heart and bone health, are packed with protein, and are one of the highest concentrated sources of omega 3 fatty acids.  I know several people who eat them straight out of the can for lunch on the go, but that's not for everyone.  It took me quite a bit of time to create the perfect recipe for a nice lunch when we're at home.

John loves rice.  He finds a way to incorporate it into several of our meals; even requesting I replace a different starch in my recipes with rice.  I used to be able to find an Asian Sesame Dressing in the local market, but like many of our favorite things to buy there, they stopped carrying it.  So then I had to research sesame dressings to be able to formulate my own recipe.  This dressing is the heart of the meal.  Without it, the rest is pretty bland and lackluster.

But lets really stop to think about rice for minute.  Most of the people I know are making instant rice or short grained white rice cooked in water.  This has got to be the fastest way to make a dish of rice that I do not want to eat unless you're serving it for breakfast with cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and almond milk!  Rice is very much like fresh mushrooms in the fact that they are ready to soak up so much flavor if you only give them a chance.  And unless you're making a large quantity of rice to make sushi - you shouldn't be using a rice cooker, in my opinion.  Rice is too easy to make to use a non multipurpose gadget.  And there is a plethora of rice types to choose from, that there has to be at least one you love.  Long grain, brown, wild, etc.  Try several types so you can get a feel for them and how the different ones would be better in particular recipes over another.  We usually stick to the sushi rice, it's pretty versatile.  However, there are occasions where a wild rice blend is preferable.

For two people, I use 3/4 cup of rice.  Figuring out how much fluid you need to properly cook the amount of grains you decide upon is super easy.  Simply double the measurement of your grains.  I fill up my 3/4 cup twice with my chosen fluid.  Depending on what I am serving with my rice will change what fluid I decide to use to cook the rice.  For this meal, I use vegetable broth.  Sometimes I use chicken broth or beef broth or turkey broth.  You get the idea.  But I pretty much never use water.  Sometimes, I will add a small pat of butter.  Again, it all depends on the rest of the meal.

Fish Heads & Rice

Serves 2

Total Time: 25 Minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Rice

1 1/2 Cups Vegetable Broth, measured out 3/4 cup at time

1 tea Sesame Oil

2 Cans Sardines

1 1/2 Tbl Rice Vinegar

1 Tbl Soy Sauce

1 tea Raw Sugar

2 tea Sesame Oil

1 Tbl Peanut Oil

1 Tbl Sesame Seeds

Set a dry pot over the burner and turn the heat to high.  Dump in the rice and toast the it for a couple minutes, gently swirling the rice in the pot a couple times.  Then, drizzle in a small amount of sesame oil and stir to coat the rice.  You only need enough oil to just barely coat the rice.  At this point, add 3/4 cup of vegetable broth.  It should come to a boil quickly.  Let it boil for a minute and then add the last 3/4 cup of broth.  Once it comes to a full boil, turn the heat to low.  Wait a minute and then cover the rice and set your timer to 15 minutes.

Now, start the dressing.  Combine the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce in a small bowl.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the oils.  

Open the sardines.  Depending on what brand you buy, you may need to remove the spines.  If you don't, they will be super hard and crunchy, and I'm not a fan of that texture in this dish.  Any other small bones are fine, you won't even notice that you've eaten them and they won't hurt you.  One can of sardines gets flaked into the bottom of a serving bowl.  Repeat the process into the second serving bowl.  When purchasing your sardines, go for the cans that have a smaller amount of fish in them as this will mean larger fish.  We typically buy the lightly smoked flavor, but packed in spring water or oil will also work.

Your timer should be about ready to beep at this point, and when it does you're going to turn off the burner the rice is on and remove the cover on the pot.  Give the rice a good stir and keep the pot over your hot burner even though you turned it off.

Take another small pot or skillet and put it over medium high heat.  Dump in your sesame seeds once the cooking vessel is hot.  Gently swirl the pot once in a while over the span of two or three minutes.  This is going to lightly toast the sesame seeds and add an element of depth to the dressing.  

Put half the rice in each bowl on top of the flaked sardines.  Then vigorously whisk the dressing to emulsify it.  Stir in the sesame seeds.  Drizzle half over each bowl of rice.  Stir it all up and enjoy!  We like this meal with a properly brewed cup of green tea, but that's a topic for another day.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo with #savoryeye!  I love seeing photos of food.