[ Be forewarned--cc'd to rec.food.cooking!!! ]

On 2010-05-25 04:57:29 -0700, MichaelDamianJeter said:

> Dried foods often have a more intense, more concentrated flavor than
> their natural counterparts. rehydrate and use sparingly with some
> lightly or non - seasoned rice, or even potatoes - something ¨bland¨
> to absorb the flavor. Get a feel for how the flavor interacts, then
> proceed with your imagination.

Good thinking.

> Doing a google search of ¨recipes for dried sardines¨ led me to quite
> a few.

Google? I never thought of that! ;-)

I found scads of listings but very few actual recipes with large dried
sardines like I have. Many of the receipes are for those microscopic
little fish. One with mizuna, though, looks to be a good one to try to
convert--we have mizuna in the garden right now. There are also many
listings that come up with fresh sardines, despite the specificity of
the search.

> There is a takuzuri, which indeed seems to be a candied sardine,

The recipe I saw had a sweet sauce, but a sardine has plenty of
competition for that, so it actually it looks pretty good. Another I
found when I added "maruboshi" which apparently means "whole fish" is
made with herring, but I think it would work well with sardine.

http://tinyurl.com/22npmuw

It's the only one I've seen so far that had a fulk-sized dried sardine
indicated. I saw another few references yesterday to "grilled dried
sardine":

> ...but more common seems their use in stock.

Again I think we're really talking about smaller, less expensive fish.
If you followed the link to the picture you may have noted these
fishies cost $30 a pound! I think that's a bit expensive for stock, no?
:-)

> Not having looked at the recipes, but just using my imagination,
> perhaps make the stock, cook
> your rice in the stock, then proceed to make rolls of a sweeter
> nature, so that the concentrated salt of the bothe would play off of
> some vegetables, or salmon, or yellowtail, or what have you.

One of the more interesting citations had to do with an almond and
grilled dried sardine, a otsumami thing--salty snack to be eaten with
drinks. And the phrase "grilled dried sardine" seems to be everywhere.

My current take-away is that they are grilled. That's while I'll be
having for lunch today!
--
If God didn't want us to eat animals, why did he make them out of meat?

gtr wrote on Tue, 25 May 2010 10:29:38 -0700:

> On 2010-05-25 04:57:29 -0700, MichaelDamianJeter said:

>> Dried foods often have a more intense, more concentrated
>> flavor than their natural counterparts. rehydrate and use
>> sparingly with some lightly or non - seasoned rice, or even
>> potatoes - something ¨bland¨ to absorb the flavor. Get a feel
>> for how the flavor interacts, then proceed with your
>> imagination.

> Good thinking.

It's a bit OT but I'd agree with MichaelDamianJeter, whose post I
missed, that drying does intensify taste. I don't have any great liking
for fresh apricots or figs as sold around here but I like the dried ones
a lot!
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

James wrote:

> It's a bit OT but I'd agree with MichaelDamianJeter, whose post I missed,
> that drying does intensify taste. I don't have any great liking for fresh
> apricots or figs as sold around here but I like the dried ones a lot!

Do you like canned apricots? Earlier this year, I reconstituted dried
apricots in sherry. They swelled up to just about their original size, and
had a texture like canned apricots. Since this was a component of an
appetizer, I didn't want it to be too sweet, but for a dessert it might be
interesting to reconstitute using amaretto or vanilla syrup, either of which
ought to complement the flavor of the apricots.

Bob

Bob wrote on Tue, 25 May 2010 11:02:05 -0700:

>> It's a bit OT but I'd agree with MichaelDamianJeter, whose
>> post I missed, that drying does intensify taste. I don't have
>> any great liking for fresh apricots or figs as sold around
>> here but I like the dried ones a lot!

> Do you like canned apricots? Earlier this year, I
> reconstituted dried apricots in sherry. They swelled up to
> just about their original size, and had a texture like canned
> apricots. Since this was a component of an appetizer, I didn't
> want it to be too sweet, but for a dessert it might be interesting to
> reconstitute using amaretto or vanilla syrup,
> either of which ought to complement the flavor of the
> apricots.

I'm not really fond of canned apricots but I like pears and peaches
canned with sugar solution (not fruit juice).

--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not