Toaster Oven/Stovetop: Fishy Snacks - Anchovy Savories and Deviled Eggs Stuffed with Sardine Mash

During the last few weeks of recipe frustration, I did make two recipes that came out well but only for people who like sour and salty snacks.

I like anchovies, so I had to try Jack’s recipe Anchovy Savories from Cooking on a Bootstrap (eBook version).

While it looks like a simple recipe, it is, but the whole melting butter mixed with flour thing intimidates me.


Toaster Oven / Hotplate: Anchovy Savories
(From Jack Monroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap (eBook) )

Makes enough sauce for 2 slices of toast.


Ingredients:

1 tspn Butter
1 tspn Flour
A little Milk
A small lump of hard Cheese, grated
A few drops of hot sauce
2 pieces of multi-grain bread
Parsley (optional)
1 36g (1.25oz) Can of anchovies, drained


Process:

Make toast, first, either in a skillet or in a toaster oven.

In a small skillet, add butter.
On a low heat, melt butter.
Add flour and stir.
Keep stirring as you slowly add a bit of milk.
Keep stirring to avoid lumps.
Add grated cheese.
Keep stirring.
Add a bit more milk, if needed.
Add hot sauce.
Keep stirring, scraping the bottoms and sides of skillet.
Sauce should be slightly thick.
Spread a layer of sauce on toast.
Top with a few anchovies.
Add parsley (optional).
Eat immediately.

To my mind, this is a snack food.

Note: You may have heard about the controversy over the contents of some Parmesan Cheese containers. Some companies were selling cheese flavored sawdust. Well, the same problem exists in the spice industry. I had a jar of Parsley that was more like twigs than parsley leaves. So, that is why I did not use parsley in this recipe




I credit Alex Fergus for the inspiration for the following recipe. You can find him at https://www.alexfergus.com/blog/51-sardine-recipes-for-the-fussiest-of-fish-eaters.


Deviled Eggs Stuffed with Sardine Mash

Pre-preparation:

Make hard-boiled eggs via toaster oven. See recipe on this blog.

Make sardine mash. See recipe on this blog.

Ingredients:

Hard-boiled egg(s)
Sardine mash
1 TBspn Mayo and a little more
1/2 Capful of lime juice
Ground black pepper to taste
1 TBspn of parsley, dry


Process:

Peel egg(s) and cut in half lengthwise.
Carefully remove the yolk(s) and put into sardine mash container.
Add Mayo into container.

Add Lime juice to mixture.
Add ground black pepper.
Stir and mix sardine mash and yolk(s) well.
Stir mixture until it is creamy.
Add more mayo if needed.
Take a Tsp scoop or more of mixture and fill the hollow in the egg halves.
Sprinkle deviled egg(s) with crushed dry parsley.

#GERD-friendly if you do not add Black pepper.

Microwave: Mug O'Hot Oats with Spinach

Microwave: A Mug O’ Hot Oats with Spinach
(Adapted from: Worts Recipe by Jack Monroe from Cooking on a Bootstrap)

As you will see in subsequent posts, getting a Toaster / Convection Oven (TCO) has thrown me into a tizzy trying to find recipes for the TCO.

Anyway, in the midst of my research, I bought a Kindle version of Jack Monroe’s Cooking on a Bootstrap.

Jack has found the secret to writing a good cookbook, include personal and historic stories of life and food with the various recipes.

Jack is clear about how she creates her recipes and where she finds her sources of information and inspiration. So, when I found her Worts recipe, a 200+ year old recipe, they found in British Library, I was intrigued on many levels.

The recipe features oats.

Anyway, as I read the recipe, I thought this might make a good Mug recipe. So, I thought, I’ll cut the recipe in half and make a mug meal.

While I had used an online Metric Converter to translate the grams and milliliters into ounces, when I went to the kitchen, I forgot to halve the recipe, but after some messy maneuvers, I made a mug of hot oats with spinach and spices and it’s pretty good.

I have so few oat recipes, I am happy to add one more to my repertoire.

Because I follow a GERD-friendly diet, I use onion powder instead of onions, for me this works with no acid reflux issues.

Also, hot sauce in a recipe seems ok, but if it’s in a sauce used to top food, that’s hard on my stomach.

But, too much of a good thing may set it off, so I try to use onion powder, hot sauce and ground black pepper and other GERD-Unfriendly ingredients sparingly.

Bouillon, Bullion, Billion… one letter can make a difference. I’d love to have a Billion Bullions but you can’t cook with them like you can with Bouillon.


Ingredients:

Olive oil
1/2 TBspn onion powder
3.5 oz dry oats
1 bouillon cube
13.5 oz of water
3.5 oz or a dessert bowl full - frozen spinach
1 Tsp lime juice
3-5 dashes of hot sauce (To make this #GERD-friendly, do not use hot sauce)
S/P to taste


Process:

Put oil in a 16 oz coffee mug.
Add onion powder.
Microwave 30 seconds on high.

Put water into a microwavable measuring cup.
Add bouillon cube.
Microwave 2 minutes on high to dissolve cube.

Put spinach into a microwavable dish.
Microwave spinach 2 minutes on high to soften.

Add oats to coffee mug.
Add bouillon water.
Stir well.
Add spinach.
Mix and stir well.
Place a saucer under the coffee mug to catch spillover.
Bring to a boil.

Here’s the problem. Because I did not halve the recipe, the mixture overwhelmed the 16 oz mug. I had to remove half the contents and put it into another bowl while I microwaved the rest for 3-5 minutes on high.

Then, I added the bowl of mix back into the mug and microwaved for about 2 minutes. There was some spill over.

By this time, the mixture had thickened.

If necessary, continue microwaving the mixture for a 1 minute or 2 more to thicken.

When done, I added lime juice, hot sauce and some ground black pepper and stirred the mixture thoroughly.

I like it. In the future, if I halve the recipe, I think it will be fairly easy to make.

6 / 1/ 19 Update:

I made another Mug O'Hot Oats and Spinach.

This time I halved the recipe, used chicken bouillon (the previous recipe used tomato bouillon), and less hot sauce. It turned out great. Both recipes are good but I like this one, today.

I can see I am going to make this recipe alot.

#GERD-friendly