Summer keeps taunting us here Up the Mountain. And then the grey and dismal part of Spring rears its head again. A bit like me, the weather has been neither here nor there.
Time for some summer cooking, we dragged out the barbecue ready to grill some sardines and pretend we were on the beach. Of course, in typical English weather fashion, the wind whipped up, the grey clouds sailed overhead and it all went pear shaped. Oh well, we turned on the oven which also took the chill off the house and all was well.
Ingredients to serve 2 as a main course or 4 as a starter
- About half a kilo of sardines, descaled and gutted
- One orange halved and thinly sliced
- Sprigs of mint
- Salt
- Olive oil
- Smoked Pimentón
Simply place your sardines (or you could use herring or mackerel) in an ovenproof dish and place slices of orange and sprigs of mint between them. You could stuff them if you prefer. Sprinkle with salt and pimentón, drizzle a little oil over and any juices from the orange.
Bake on high for about 15 minutes until the juices from the sardines run clear. And at least you won’t have to worry about sand in your shoes….
Chica Andaluza 
I do wish the weather would improve. But these sardines are enough to cheer any gloomy day. Sardines are my favourite fish…delicious!
The season for the really good sardines is starting here – any month without an “r” in it, so they say!
This looks utterly gorgeous!!! Simple, but a fabulous combination of flavours… I never would have thought of orange and mint with fish, thanks for sharing!
We have so many oanges here right now, I thought they’d make a lovely change from lemon! Thanks for visiting and commenting 🙂
Looks delicious, (we can get mackerel here but not sardines, which I love too), even if you had to turn to the oven, exactly as we had to here as we were rained off a BBQ last weekend, thanks.
Rains stops bbqs but it can’t stop us eating well! I guess it’s more of a hazard where you are though 😦
That looks lovely–like a painting. The better half loves sardines! I’m waiting for the sun to pop out today. so far, no luck.
Hope the sun did eventually come out!
For two days now!
I do wish fresh sardines were more available here…that looks lovely!
Know what you mean about the weather – in the space of 5 days, we went from having the heat on in the house to kids playing in the sprinkler…so odd this year!
It’s turned nice here but now the weather says cloudy days next week – so weird!
This is mopreish, this is easy, this looks good, this is healthy and I DO like the smoked pimenton touch! Weather – let’s not talk abouit it: first day of our winter and raining buckets!!!!! But at least we both are not in Oklahoma!!!!!
Poor old Oklahoma – they really have been punished enough I think …
I thought you’dd have some nice weather there 😦
Oh well, I had some lovely Cornish sardines last week – now you’ve made me want more, though I’ll wait for the barbecue – the smell of griddled sardines wouldn’t leave the kitchen for a week 😉
Cornish Sardines are so good – if you oven cook them you don’t get quite the same flavour as griddling, but no smell, which is good!
I also wish fresh sardines were available in Asia. I guess I will have to enjoy them next time in your area. Your dish looks very fresh and beautiful.
I guess I took them a little for granted…and forgot that such a humble fish is not available everywhere 😦
I can’t quite wrap my head around this one… mint and orange with fishies? I’ll have to try it – my local grocer has just recently started to carry sardines. I do love ’em… and boy do I have mint at the moment!! Mmm….
I think I’d been influenced by north African flavours, have been reading Moroccan recipes! Works well – the salty sardines, the sweet oranges and the tangy mint!
Just fabulous. Summer cooking is on my mind and that simple recipe is my kind of thing.
And even better on the bbq (weather permitting, of course!)
Que forma tan original de comer sardinas¡¡¡¡Me encanta.
Era riquisimo y muy facil!
This recipe fascinates me….!
I have a mint-plant on the balcony , some oranges in the fridge and a fishmonger at the corner of my house : next Monday I’ll buy the sardines!
Thank you , Chica !
Go for it!
That new fish lady appears to be on her toes there…those sardines look like they could flip if you poked them! Lovely rustic food, huge vats of delicious wine to quaff and all the time in the world to potter around, heaven appears to have set up home in Spain 😉
Yes, she’s got quite a range of stuff, and even though she reaches us towards the end of her round, there’s still lots of choice and super fresh. And 3 times a week…how great is that! At least now we know what time she gets here, we can get the bbq fired up and the wine chilled and waiting 🙂
I’m not at all familiar with fresh sardines, Tanya. I’ve only seen them once in the past year. I do like the idea, though, of roasting/grilling them with orange slices. Such a great change from fish with lemon. I have to keep looking for them. This is a dish Zia would love! 🙂
I guess where you are, they probably don’t travel that well 😦 I do have to confess to a great fondness for tinned sardines too…they taste different but oh so good! Hope the visit went well, am just off to read your blog now.
Sardines seem to divide our household (some think that they make the house smell for days, others love them so much they’ll have them for lunch on toast). This dish looks as beautiful as I’m sure it tastes and would probably unite everyone here on the sardine front!
It’s true – it’s a love/hate thing! Oven cooking really does sort out the stinky kitchen issue though 🙂
What a stunning idea, mint and oranges.. a match made in heaven! c
Apart from looking pretty, it was so fresh and lovely! Thanks for popping by miss c!
I enjoyed my visit! c
What a great dish. I’m always jealous of your fish selection.
We are very spoilt for choice in both our homes!
¡Qué rico Tanya! Ya sé que estoy desaparecida…la verdad es que no sé dónde se va el día, pero cada noche pienso: mañana me pondré al día con la lectura de mis blogs favoritos. Y mañana llega y nada! Soy un desastre…
Espero que estéis muy bien, un saludo
G
La vida con tú familia es muchísimo más importante que el mundo de “blogging”! No eres un desastre, eres una mujer increíble ¡(y no lo olvides)!
Why oh why are fresh sardines so hard to find in the U.S.? These look absolutely fabulous and remind me of so many great sardine dishes I’ve had around Europe.
I love the combination of orange and smoked pimento.
I hadn’t realised until I saw various comments that they are not easily available in the US … how sad 😦 so cheap, so full of flavour!
I have to admit that sardines aren’t the first choice for me as far as fish are concerned, maybe because we can’t get them fresh. Yours look so beautiful nestled amongst the orange and mint…I think I would love them!
They are pretty strongly flavoured, but fresh are a bit subtler!
Hasn’t this spring been dreadful? Not what we expect around the Mediterranean. But at last the weather seems to be improving and this cheerful looking dish is just what we need. It looks delicious!
Yes, summer (although a gentle version) is here up the mountain!
I haven’t seen fresh sardines in our market but your recipe using other fish sounds great. I think the mint and orange sounds wonderful. This has been the strangest spring…lots of rain, temps in the 50’s and 60’s and very windy.
It’s still weird here too. I thought summer had arrived then today it’s grey, windy and decidedly not at all like summer 😦
I most like to eat fish especially looks like this is certainly delicious,,