I am beginning to believe that I just do NOT care for anchovies.
Worcestershire sauce excepted, of course.
We came across these kinda cunning looking white Italian anchovies packed in white wine with garlic and parsley on a trip to Costco, and I had just seen a Two Fat Ladies episode where they made this cool shortcrust pastry and spread it with Gentleman’s Relish and Dijon mustard, then baked it all up and served it to happy lumberjacks or some sort.
It seemed like kismet – I could use these pretty darned good looking little Italian fishes to make the Gentleman’s Relish, and mebbe toss in a Puttanesca while I was about it.
Hmmm. I made the relish and sniffed it, and it really didn’t smell too, too bad! Then I made the puttanesca, and, while I thought it was a touch on the fishy side – I was getting hints of my third nibble of picked herring when I know perfectly well I can only reasonably stomach two – Rich seemed to quite like it, so I figured I may as well go ahead with the whole savory shortcrust and anchovy and Dijon thing…
INGREDIENTS
• About 4-1/2 oz anchovies
– I used a generous 1/4 cup
•8 oz unsalted butter, softened
•1 small pinch cayenne pepper
•1 small pinch ground nutmeg
•1 small pinch freshly ground black pepper
•1 small pinch ground cinnamon
•2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
•2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
•2 tbsp water
Note: for “1 small pinch”, I used approximately 1/16 teaspoon.
Place the butter in a blender with the anchovies and the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth and creamy. You may need to move things around a bit in the jar with a scraper, and blend in pulses to have it all come together, but it will.
Pour into a bowl lined with plastic wrap, then cover and chill until solidified.
Use as you will – if you like this stuff. I think that my problem is that I am simply not a fan of oily fish. Friends back in New England wax rhapsodic about bluefish, and there are some media outlets that announce when the blues are running and folk get all excited.
Yech.
Still; if you like oily fish, you may very well like this – which is traditionally served on buttered bread and mebbe a bit of cucumber.
If you’d like to try the savory shortcrust pinwheels I made with my Gentleman’s Relish, tune in tomorrow. I may not care for the anchovies, but I love the shortcrust!