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sardine choka

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Seafood

Delicious Tin Sardines Recipe: Easy and Budget-Friendly.

1 Comment on Delicious Tin Sardines Recipe: Easy and Budget-Friendly.

Make this make sense? Trinidad and Tobago are two relatively small ISLANDS, meaning they’re surrounded by water. Both the Caribbean Sea and Atlantic Ocean are teeming with fish, yet if you look closer at our culinary culture, you’ll notice that we use a fair amount of tin (canned) fish in our recipes.

You’ll Need…

1 can Sardines (in oil)
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 small onion (sliced thin)
1 medium tomato (sliced)
1 scotch bonnet pepper (sliced)
1 teaspoon lemon juice (or lime)
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Notes! Please follow along with the video below as much more about the recipe is discussed there. Should you want to add some chopped scallions, Shado Beni (culantro) and/or parsley, feel free to do so. I didn’t add any salt as explained in the video.

In the video I spoke about the preferred brand of sardines mommy would make for us growing up in the Caribbean and how over the years living in Canada, that has changed. What I failed to mention is that I much prefer sardines packed in oil, rather than water. However the choice is all yours.

While I enjoy the sardines packed in oil, I usually drain that oil out. Then you have the option to split the sardines open and remove the bones and “inners” as shown in the video. Or simply crush them with a fork.

Add the black pepper, tomato, lemon juice and Scotch Bonnet pepper (if you’re making it spicy) and mix together.

Then top with the thinly sliced onion.

Heat the oil on a medium/high flame, until you start seeing whispers of smoke, then pour it directly onto the sliced onion. Not only will this flash-cook the onions (take away the ‘bite’), the oil will get a lovely onion flavor.

Stir well to combine and enjoy!

My comfort meal includes rice, Dhal, the Sardines like this and slices of ripe zabouca (avocado). If you have lime peppersauce on the side… wicked!

This version of canned sardines (called sardine choka by some), is an excellent topping for salted crackers or on open face sandwiches.

Seafood

My Grandmother’s Fish Choka.

1 Comment on My Grandmother’s Fish Choka.

Following up on the Fry Dry Herrings recipe I shared yesterday, here’s my take on my grandma’s Fish Choka. Basically any fried, oven roasted or grilled fish, flaked and made into a sort of salad (best way I can describe it). Light, tasty and very simple to put together. While the recipe isn’t exact, the technique is very true to the traditional way of making Fish Choka in Trinidad and Tobago. A ‘poor mans’ dish, usually made from fish the fishermen would practically give away (back in the old days).

You’ll Need…

1 lb fried fish (any will work)
1 medium onion (sliced thin)
1-2 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tomato (diced)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 lime (juice)
1 birds eye pepper (chopped finely)
2 scallions (chopped)
1 tablespoon parsley (chopped)
1 teaspoon pepper oil (optional)

Strip fish meat off the bones into flakes, ensuring you remove all the bones and discard. If using fried herring or sardines with a batter you have the option of keeping the crispy skin or not.

With the flaked fish in a large bowl, add the black pepper, salt, juice of lime, tomato, bird’s eye pepper (optional), scallion, parsley and pepper oil. Being a bit gentle, toss everything to mix evenly. As mentioned in the video below, my grandma would typically use a clove of crushed garlic in the mix, but my pepper oil got a lot of garlic in it.

Top with the thinly sliced onion. I used a red onion, but you’re free to use any onion you have on hand or like using.. the key is to slice it very thin.

Heat the olive oil until you start seeing smoke. You my use coconut. vegetable or any oil you like using.

Pour the heated oil directly over the onions. This will slightly cook then and in the process, add a lovely onion flavor to the dish and kill some of it’s pungency.

Stir well and ENJOY

While my dad enjoys this as a topping for salted crackers, I’m a fan of Dhal and Rice served with this Fish Choka. The odd times I make sandwiches with it and when I’m not lazy I make fresh Sada Roti.

Seafood

Oh lovely sardines from a can?

66 Comments on Oh lovely sardines from a can?

trinidad sardine chokaFish is a serious turn off for a lot of people and even more unattractive is when that fish comes in a can. But if you’re a regular on the site, you’ll know that I have a series that I call “lazy man” dishes (Corned Beef / Salmon). And today we’re about to add a new member into the family. Since it’s one of those meals you can put together in mere minutes and it’s very delicious. Providing you’re not afraid to try something a bit different.

My Trinbagonian people will know that this is a common snack type dish and everyone seems to have their own way of putting this together. No real cooking is involved, and you can experiment with ingredients as well.

BTW, fellas this is not something you eat before that big date your special someone. The combo of sardines and onions on your breath will not win you any points.

You’ll Need…

1 can sardines (I like the ones with the peppers made by Brunswick)
1/2 tomato sliced thin
1 scallion sliced thin (optional)
Juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
Black pepper
1/4 onion sliced thin
1/4 hot pepper sliced (I used a habanero – you can use whatever you have or like)
2 tablespoon vegetable oil (I like using olive oil)

Let’s see if we can do this in 3 steps.

Step 1.

Slice the onion, tomato, scallion and hot pepper very thin and set aside.

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Step 2.

Open and empty the sardines into a bowl. The following step is optional, but this is the way I saw my mom doing it… break each sardine down the middle (length-wise) and remove the middle bone (can be left, but I find that it gives the dish a gritty texture that I don’t like) and secondly you must remove the inside of the belly (there’s no polite way of saying “guts’). Then break apart each fish so you have chunky pieces.

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Step 3.

Top with all the stuff we sliced earlier, squeeze in the lime or lemon juice and add a dash of black pepper. Then on high heat, heat the oil in a small frying pan and allow to heat until you’re about to start seeing smoke. Now pour the hot oil over everything and stir well. YOU’RE DONE!

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You can call this a salad, choka, talkarie or as in my case… a lazy man’s dish. Works well as a topping for Crix (a locally made crackers), on sandwiches, with roti , pita… you get the point.

I’d love to hear how our friends from the other islands and around the world make this (if you do) so please leave me a comment below and don’t forget to join us on Facebook. Our goal is to have 25,000 fans by the end of the year. Please help us make it happen.

Happy Cooking

Chris…

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