sardines

I was only exposed to this dish after moving to Canada, however in speaking with my mom recently she mentioned that she did use canned (tin) sardines in tomato sauce. Apparently we hated the tomato sauce, so she never included it in the meals she would make for my siblings and I. She also spoke about my younger brother’s curry recipe, he makes with these same sardines in tomato sauce.

You’ll Need…

1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 medium onion (sliced)
2 scallions (chopped)
1 bell pepper (chopped)
1 small Scotch Bonnet pepper (green)
3 sprigs thyme
3/4 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (your fav salt)
1/2 cup water
2 medium tomatoes (wedges)
1 large can sardines in tomato sauce
1/2 lemon (juice)
2 tablespoon chopped parsley

Notes! May I recommend you follow along with the video below as much more about the recipe is explained there. Including why I like a green Scotch Bonnet pepper and how adding a bit of crushed garlic and can enhance this dish further. If making this dish gluten free, please go through the full list of ingredients to ensure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary needs.

Open and pour the can of sardines in a large bowl, then separate the sardines from the tomato sauce and reserve. The following step is optional. Split each sardine lengthwise in half and remove (discard) the middle bones of each fish. Be gentle.

Heat the coconut oil (use your fav oil) in a wide saucepan on a medium flame, then add the bell pepper, onion, scotch bonnet and scallions. Turn the heat to med/low and cook for 3 minutes.

Then add the black pepper, thyme and curry powder and cook for a further 2 minutes, before adding the reserved tomato sauce.

Rinse the bowl with the tomato sauce with the water and add that water to the pan. Stir well and add the salt. Bring to a simmer (medium heat) and cook for 3 minutes.

At this point add the chunky pieces of tomato, stir (gentle – explained in the video) and cook for 2 minutes before adding the sardine fillets.

Be very gentle when adding the sardine fillets or they will fall apart on you.. unless that is what you want (chunky pieces). Spoon on the sauce over the fish, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until it heats through.

Three minutes later you may taste and adjust the salt to your liking, add the lemon (or lime) juice and top with the chopped parsley. Turn off the stove. You can always add more water if you find that the sauce is overly thick.

When my Guyanese friends introduced me to this dish, they served it with steaming hot rice. Personally I enjoy it with Sada Roti, slices of avocado (zabouca) and with peppersauce on the side.

Seafood

Delicious Tin Sardines Recipe: Easy and Budget-Friendly.

May 27, 2025February 13, 20241 Comment

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

Grandma’s Traditional Fried Herrings.

May 7, 2020May 7, 2020Leave a Comment

Fry Dry! Small ocean fish marinated in a classic Caribbean marinade, then fried until crisp. Such a simple dish, but deep in tradition (our family’s recipe goes back about 150 yrs) . Just about every Caribbean household got their own version of making this dish.. today I’ll share my grandma’s take on it.

You”ll Need…

2 lbs herrings (cleaned)
1/2 lemon (juice)
1 teaspoon curry powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
I tablespoon Caribbean Green Seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper sauce (hot sauce)
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Clean (or ask your fish monger to do it) and wash the herrings with lemon juice and cool water. Drain and season with salt, black pepper, curry powder, garlic, Caribbean Green Seasoning and peppersauce (or your fav hot suace). Mix well (be gentle as you don’t want to break-up the fish) to coat evenly and marinate for about 1 hour. Try to get some of the seasoning
into the belly cavity of the fish. For additional flavor you may grate in a small onion too!

Set up your frying station. Flour (on a plate), Seasoned fish, frying pan and a plate lined with paper towels.

Heat oil on medium heat, dust each fish in the flour (not heavy) and pan fry the fish until they are crisp. Takes between 3-4 minutes on each side. The goal is to have fried (crisp) dry fish.

Fry in batches to not crowd the pan and place on paper towels to drain off excess oil.

Quick, simple and very tasty. I recall days when my grandmother would have boiled rice, split peas dhal and this fry dry herring (sardines and smelts will work great too) . Yea, fire roasted coconut chutney would be the spicy condiment of choice back then.

Gluten Free Seafood

Oven Roasted Sardines.

March 22, 2016March 22, 2016Leave a Comment

It’s kinda funny that in the Caribbean we quickly reach of a can of sardines more often than taking advantage of the abundance of fresh sardines from the Caribbean sea. It’s probably a convenience thing, plus if you ever had to clean sardines you’d know that it’s a bit time consuming (and smelly). Admittedly I’m a HUGE fan of tin sardines.. done with thinly sliced onion, tomato and scotch bonnet peppers.. with a bit of freshly ground black pepper, lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil.

You’ll Need…

1 lb sardines
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil (divided)
1 scallion
2 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic
1 lemon
3-5 birds eye pepper

* If doing this recipe gluten free be sure to go through the entire list of ingredients to make sure they meet with your specific gluten free dietary needs.

Finely chop the scallions, garlic and parsley. If you’re concerned about the raw heat from the bird’s eye pepper (say bird pepper in the Caribbean), you can leave them whole and the natural oils from the skin will be released as they roast in the oven.

Try to get the people at your fish market to clean and gut your sardines.. or be prepared for a bit of a mess as you scale and remove the innards. Rinse with lemon juice and cool water and drain dry. Then cut two shallow slits at the thickest parts of the belly (both sides). This will help the flavors to really penetrate.

Drizzle a bit of the olive oil on the bottom of your roasting pan, then place the sardines and go in with the other ingredients. Mix well. Top with the lemon juice and the rest of the olive oil. I like placing a few slices of lemon between the fish as well. Allow this to marinate for about 15 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375 and then place the baking pan on the middle rack. Roast for 10 minutes.

To really intensify the flavors, I then crank up the oven’s heat to ‘broil’.. which is about 500 F and give it another 4-5 minutes. Then get ready to enjoy an amazing gluten free, fish dish unlike the canned stuff we normally reach for.

You can certainly do these on your grill, or if you wanted you can even dust then in flour and fry in vegetable oil until crisp. Remember if you’re doing the fried version it will NOT be gluten free, unless you use a gluten free flour.

Sardines In Tomato Sauce.

Delicious Tin Sardines Recipe: Easy and Budget-Friendly.

Grandma’s Traditional Fried Herrings.

Oven Roasted Sardines.

Hi, I'm Chris.

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