Stuffed Grilled Sardines Recipe - Greek Style

Try this delicious healthy fish dish of stuffed grilled sardines. It’s nice and easy to prepare and doesn’t take up a lot of time. If you are a working person you can come home prepare the dish, have a quick shower, then cook the dish and not miss your favourite soap. For those of you who love to cook fish and make stuffing this is the recipe for you. It's also a good way to fight cholesterol too!

Ingredients for 4 Servings

• 16 medium sized fresh sardines, with spines cleaned and removed. Opened out but not halved
• stock salt
• 2 teaspoonfuls of olive oil (for the baking dish)

Ingredients for the Stuffing

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 large peeled tomato, seeds removed and grated
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoonful dried crushed oregano
• 1/2 cup parsley leaves finely chopped
• 2 cups olive oil
• salt and pepper

For the Oil and Lemon Sauce

• 1/2 cup of olive oil
• juice of one lemon
• 1/3 teaspoonful dried crushed oregano

Preparation

1. Wash the sardines and leave to drain on kitchen roll paper.
2. Place the garlic, onion, parsley, tomato, salt and pepper, oregano and olive oil in a bowl and mix well.
3. Preheat the grill and place half the sardines on an oiled (2 teaspoonfuls) baking dish with the the inside flesh facing up.
4. Spoon a layer of the stuffing onto each fish, cover with the rest of the sardines and sprinkle with rock salt.
5. Grill for ten minutes.

Preparation of Oil and Lemon Sauce

1. Beat the oil, lemon juice and oregano in a bowl with a fork.
2. Pour the sauce over the grilled sardines and serve hot.

Now when you've done cooking, serve with a salad and some nice French fries and enjoy a wonderfully delicious fish meal.

A Word of Advice on the Oil You Use

If the sardines are not as crisp and fresh as you thought they should be, look at the quality of your olive oil. The best choice for the frying pans or baking dishes is extra virgin olive oil with very low acidity. This type of olive oil is resistant to high temperatures and it can be used again as long as they are no bits of flour, unpleasant smells or the colour has not changed. If you do want to use it again the oil should be filtered. My personal choice is to throw it away and use fresh oil the next time.

Some people prefer the more neutral flavour of sunflower or corn oil but are hesitant to use oils that have been associated with scandals or genetically modified foods. A safe option I always think is to use organic seed oils, although these as expensive as good olive oil.

Whatever you use, it should not, I repeat not, be allowed to burn. I don’t mean with flames licking the sides of the pan, if the oil is giving off smoke, then its burning. If the temperature is kept up to a maximum of 170C, it can be used three or four times.