1y ago

Anchovies? How do you use them?

I'm Korean and grew up eating anchovies in a variety of Korean dishes. Usually tiny ones that are stir fried with seasonings, or dried and salted ones. I use fish sauce, made from anchovies, pretty often in dishes, but I've never really tried making anything with the bigger, sardine style ones. I've been meaning to put some in pasta sauce. I've read they just dissolve as it simmers and adds good flavor. If you cook with anchovies, what are your favorite ways to use them?

6 comments

We mostly use them in beef stews and tomato sauces. We dice them up as fine as possible and add them. They seem to disintegrate into the sauces and just add nice umami.
- I usually end up using mushrooms for umami with beef stew type dishes and tomato sauces, but I'm going to try anchovies next time. Thanks!

Personally, I use anchovy paste a lot. It comes in a tube like toothpaste. I never need that many, so it's nice to not have to open a whole can. It does really dissolve in pasta sauce. I also use it for caesar salad dressing. I think every culture has a way of adding MSG to things, whether it's pure powdered msg, miso, vegemite, soy sauce, fish sauce, parmesan, mushrooms, or anchovies. For me, it's really just an msg source with a little extra flavor of its own. I never really use enough that something tastes like anchovy.
- Yeah, I use MSG and soy sauce in almost everything, but I cook a lot of Asian foods. I didn't even think about anchovy paste. That's something I keep forgetting to do with tomato paste as well instead of buying cans. But I don't really make a lot of tomato based stuff, and when I do I use homegrown tomatoes. Mushrooms I use a lot as well. Thanks for the tip!

Pizza! We make a "Dragon Breath" pizza that has mushrooms, anchovies, garlic, and onion (alternative would be green onions or shallots). It's delicious! We've also made variations with spinach, feta cheese, or anything that's available. We use the full anchovies on top of the pizza.

Dried anchovies(Ikan Bilis) and peanuts makes a tasty Indonesian combo. It is an essential part of Nasi Lemak.

6 comments