Not a fan of crostini. Don’t need anything to cut into my gums. ![[cry.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/853b6e76c6e8406be77a6727c2a27ad1672678b3.gif "cry"){kind=small}
Bumping Otto’s question. I’ve always just served them with crusty bread and an acidic white wine. We just placed an order for six cans of the sardines and a can of the Ortiz bonito.
I, too, am curious about serving/pairing options. Thanks. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
I am curious if Nola has any makerel in olive oil? Did not see any at http://www.gourmet-delights.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; site!
Yummm, no. But I am sealing the deal on the only Organic Sturgeon in Olive Oil and Iranian Recipe Caviar as well as Organic Trout from Rio Frio, Granada. We went to Granada last Sunday and viewed their facilities…very cool. And besides, I LOVE Caviar!
I learned a lot about Sturgeon and Caviar there at Rio Frio. Like they have an exoskeleton of cartilage, that it takes eight years to determine if they are male or female, they determine the sex via ultrasound, at that point the males and females are separated. It takes yet another 8 years of growth until they are large enough to sacrifice to get the eggs for caviar. The females are sacrificed and the egg sack is removed intact. The eggs are always unfertilized because they are separated years before. Each animal is micro chipped and followed throughout their life span. If the female does not sense a male around, she reabsorbs the eggs in the egg pouch and will go through another cycle of fertility. Each female Sturgeon is biopsied for egg maturity before sacrifice for perfect eggs. Both the males and the females are kept in holding tanks for about 1 week without feeding before sacrifice to avoid any muddy type flavors to the meat or eggs. It was very interesting. Afterwards we went to the restaurant and enjoyed caviar, ventresca of sturgeon and fresh trout. I am working out the pricing details, but will be taking presale orders for the Caviar tor this Christmas.
Nolita had fun!
I post a few more pictures next since 3 is the limit.
The Sturgeon in their holding pool.
Hi Nola, great shots of Nolita! Maybe some day I can introduce her to my grandson (looks like about the same age, 7).
Nola,
any luck with an importer outside Ohio?
Sure, I would love her to meet him. Yes she just turned 7 at the end of July. She has about 4 Novios (boyfriends) right now. Last year at the end of the school year two little boys that are cousins fought over her. She is a really sweet little girl. Did you notice the death grip Juan had on her by the trout?
I’m not sure what you mean Eric? For our wine and food products I am the Importer. The food products, I can ship anywhere in the US to anybody without restriction. For the Wine I did just get a distributor in CA; Brad Roen of Global One Wine outside of LA. The wine just got there last week so as soon as it rests a bit he’ll start getting it out.
Also, we had the great fortune of having a marvelous harvest intern this year who found us via this BB. We have since hired her to be our 2nd arm in the US since we are here so much, welcome Alejandra Anderson. She will be coming back to Spain this month to spend a good amount of time at Rio Frio to learn all about their caviar production.
Any one have any idea how to prepare fresh Sturgeon? They have sent me a fillet of about 2kg that I am not exactly the optimal way to prepare.
She’s popular! I guess you mean the grip at the end of the film.
We’ll have to introduce her and Jeremy someday–right now he is in Australia, for about another 18 months. We’ll be over there in April.
Nola and Juan did find something very special!
They are called piparras. They are a traditional long green pepper from the Basque Country of Spain. With a mild slightly pickled flavor, they make a wonderful accompaniment to Bonita tuna and smoked fish. I love them as an appetizer drizzled with some Veleta Extra Virgin Olive Oil from Nola and sprinkled witha coarse but flaky sea salt! Delicious!
For anyone curious about the Veleta sardines – the flavor is clean and very nice, but after all a sardine is going to taste like a sardine. In that narrow spectrum these are right at the top.
Part of what is special is that you have beautiful small silvery fish, slightly smaller than my little finger, layered into the tin and looking pretty much flawless. What I want to do is to make some little toast rectangles and some kind of “adhesive” layer with mustard and chopped hard cooked eggs, and perch one of these beautiful little fish on each one. The ideal “canape.” That would look terrific and taste terrific and a tin of these things would go a long way served like that.
I also bought some of the Veleta olive oil and Veleta saffron but haven’t tried either of those yet.
Excellent suggestion, Frank. I have had seven tins of Veleta sardines sitting on my kitchen counter all week. I can hardly wait to sample some tonight or tomorrow. Still pondering ways to serve them and a wine to pair with them.
Chris, my suggestion is a nice Viognier. Great sardines indeed.
This gives you the general idea. I am sorry the presentation is messy but I kind of like my chopped eggs chunky. One could cut the toast to rectangles and put the egg through a tamis or something. Anyway, a heaping teaspoon of mustard, a heaping tablespoon of mayo, and a whole hard boiled egg stretched for 12 sardines. There were 3 or 4 left in the tin. And this is a nice baguette cut on a 45 degree angle, brushed with olive oil and salted, and baked until colored on a cookie sheet in a 385 degree oven, maybe 10-12 minutes. I put on a thin layer of butter, then a spoonfull of the egg-mustard-mayo, and then a sardine. You have to take my word for it that a sprinkling of chives improved the appearance 100%.
PS at the first course at dinner tonight this got raves. “Best sardines I ever tasted!”
WOW!!! Fantastic!
bump…from four years ago…[this was an exhausting search exercise]
On January 4, my lovely bride and I hosted a small group of Berserkers to start the year off right. And that we did. Check out DavidT’s post in the wine forum for details. TN: Columbus Berserker offline Starting the New Year right - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Because Nola and Juan Palomar were coming, I wanted to serve their sardines but in a less conventional (to me) presentation. I ended up modifying this “tonnato” spread recipe that I found on epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Sardine-Tonnato-Spread-232506. Everyone seemed quite pleased with it. I adjusted amounts commensurate with the difference in the size of the cans (Nola’s cans are bigger!). I decided to remove the spines to encourage more people to try it. It was made about four hours ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator before serving with crostini. I tweaked it to taste and ended up increasing the amount of capers, S&P, and a bit more lemon zest. Enjoy.
Well I have a natural bias and interest here, but Chris’ recipe was spot on!
This thread made me remember that I have some cans of Sardines from Veleta still! Gonna open them superbowl sunday. Nom nom
“Guindillas”. Add to anchovies, skewered on toothpicks, then called “gildas”. Love the stuff.
We don’t import guindillas but I do have Juan bring back things like that once in a while since he is over there so much. Those guindillas are amazing in a mixed salad sliced up or a hundred other uses too!!