Sardine Bazi

A cheap and simple yet delicious dish that my siblings and I grew up on! Even as adults we love it.  This would make a great side dish or main dish, particularly if you don’t have much time to cook or are living a student-budget lifestyle.  So break out your tinned sardines (we all have them in our cupboards don't we?!) and start cooking!

 Sardine Bazi

Serves: 1-2

Prep/Cooking Time: approx 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:

2 120g tins sardines (can either be in oil, brine or tomato sauce)

2-3 green or red chillies chopped
Handful chopped coriander
½ level tsp salt
½ tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tsp dhaniya (ground coriander powder)
¼ tsp chilli powder
1 medium onion finely sliced
2 tbs oil

Preparation:

Empty sardine cans onto a plate or bowl.  Include the oil or tomato sauce.  If the sardines are in brine, drain the brine off. You may wish to remove the backbone – I leave mine in, they’re that soft!

Combine all other ingredients (apart from oil) and mix thoroughly. 

 

Heat oil in a non-stick pan over low-moderate heat and add mixture, spreading it out evenly.  Cover with lid.

Uncover (dropping in excess sweat in lid back into mixture to keep it moist and stop it from burning) stir and spread the mixture out again.  Do this every couple of minutes until the mixture turns a dark brown colour.  Approximately 10-12 minutes. 

Enjoy it with some plain rice as we did as children.  Or, why not spread it on toast or eat it with some chapatti?! This also goes well with a Roasted Salad (see separate recipe).

Remember if it’s too spicy for you - add some plain yoghurt and then reduce the amount of chilli the next time you cook it. 

This recipe works with other tinned fish too - mackerel is delicious! Tuna may be a little too dry unless you use the tins with oil.