A quickfire-inspired sardines meal

I'm bummed that I'm not watching the Top Chef reunion on TV right now. The show, one of my favorites, usually comes on at 10 p.m. so after getting home from the gym at 9, I cooked dinner. When I finished eating I was all ready to watch my favorite chefs rehash the superb Season 6. But it came on at 9 instead of 10 tonight. So while the Top Chefers were reminiscing about surviving quickfire challenges and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, I was doing the same in my kitchen. On a much more amateur scale.

And what was the secret ingredient in my quickfire challenge? Canned sardines.

Tonight I finally cooked the canned sardines that have been sitting in my cupboard for more than a month. I bought them after reading about the health benefits since sardines are full of omega 3s. I also had recently read about sardines being a good environmental choice because they aren't overfished or high in mercury. So I bought a can but was too afraid of what was inside to actually eat them.

Canned sardines, like canned tuna or salmon, are great in a pinch. Well, that's exactly how I used them tonight. I didn't have much to eat and wanted something quick. My first surprise was that they weren't slimy. They looked like canned tuna and smelled slightly like tuna too. When I first bought them I typed "how to cook canned sardines" into Google and there was no consensus. They could be eaten right out of the can (um, no thank you) or warmed up on the stove; remove the bones or leave them in because the bones are small and soft and therefore edible; eat them on a cracker with mustard or mix them up with mayonnaise like tuna fish. With that in mind, I threw them in a pan with some oil and their own juices. Then I put the warmed sardines on a toasted tortilla with mustard, topped with grape tomatoes and fresh basil (from my herb garden!). I pulled all the vegetables out of the crisper to see what I had and quickly cut up a carrot, zucchini, red pepper and celery to be steamed. Everything was done in 10 minutes. If this were a quickfire challenge I would have plated before the buzzer but talk about an uninspiring meal. 

The sardines weren't bad. They just weren't good either. They didn't have much taste. I felt like I was eating a dry white fish -- like tuna but with a less distinctive smell and taste. Thank god for the spicy mustard or else the whole meal would have tasted really bland. I'd buy them again because they're cheap and convenient. But I don't see any Top Chef wins in my future.

My finished meal. Think Padma would want to try it?