Crispy sardines and herby potato pitta Recipe

This is a nod to Istanbul street food. Traditionally, sardines from the Bosphorus are fried or grilled, and served in a pita bread with an onion salad. In Kurdish chef Melek Erdal's  version, he fills grilled pitta with pan-fried sardines and a herby onion potato salad.

Put 400g halved red skin potatoes in a deep pan and cover with water by 1cm. Add a teaspoon of salt and bring to a boil. Cook until cooked through but still firm. Drain and set aside. Peel once cool – the skins should slip off easily.

Now for the onions. Put 2,5 tbsp oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat, add 2 peeled, halved and thinly sliced onions, a pinch of salt and a good grind of pepper, and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes, until they begin to brown and reduce by half. Add 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cumin and 15g currants, caramelise for a further 10 minutes, then leave to cool.

In a large bowl, mix 3 spring onions, 20g finely chopped parsley, 10g finely chopped dill, 15g capers, 1 tbsp olive oil, a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of black pepper, then stir in the skinned potatoes.

For the green sauce, roughly pulse-blend 15g basil, 10g mint leaves, 1/2 green birds-eye chilli, deseeded. Juice and zest of 1/2 lemon, 2 tbsp olive oil. A pinch of salt and 1 tsp pepper until coarse and not too smooth. 

Stir half the sauce into the potato bowl. 

Mix the rest with a drizzle of pomegranate molasses, then sprinkle with  1/4 tsp sumac and some dill, and set aside. 

Clean 4 sardines – you can ask your fishmonger to do this, or cut down the middle lengthways and push the insides out with your thumb. Wash in a bowl of water, then cut off their heads. Butterfly the sardines by running your thumbs down the inside spine and opening up slightly.

Mix 40g semolina and 1/3 teaspoon of salt on a plate and gently pat the fish in the mix on both sides, dusting off the excess. Place the sardines flat on a plate and leave to rest in the fridge while you prep the salad.

Heat 2 tbsp sunflower oil in a frying pan over a high heat and add the fish, fanning them out like a flower. Cook on a medium-high heat for six minutes on one side and two minutes on the other.

Serve the sardines and potato salad on a platter or stuff them all into grilled  pitta breads with an extra drizzle of green sauce and molasse

(Here Melek's original recipe and more)

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Crispy sardines and herby potato pitta Recipe

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