Left: anchovies in Sipanska Luka, Sipan. Right: my version at home
Following my gastronomic tour of Dubrovnik and the Elaphite Islands, I thought it would be fun to have a Dalmatian-themed week. I say Dalmatian, rather than Croatian, because like many other European countries, in Croatia each region has its own distinct culinary traditions. Wikipedia highlights that the most notable differences are between mainland and coastal regions, influenced both by history and the differences in the selection of foodstuffs. Mainland cuisine has its early roots in Slavic cookery and more recently Hungarian, Viennese and, to a lesser extent, Turkish cuisine, “while the coastal region bears the influences of the Greek, Roman and Illyrian, as well as of the later Mediterranean cuisine – Italian and French”. With regards to foodstuffs, as one might expect, Dalmatia and other coastal regions rely heavily on seafood, while hearty meat dishes are more prominent in the interior.
Marinated anchovies are not distinctly Dalmatian by any means, one might expect to find them all throughout the Mediterranean, but they did feature on every menu we encountered, so it seems like as good a place as any to start. My experience in other countries, such has Spain, has been that marinated anchovies are usually served as a small portion of the fish accompanied only by their preserving liquid. In Dalmatia it is the addition of condiments such as capers, onion, salad leaves and/or tomato, which makes them something special.
As mentioned in my post on the subject, the best anchovies we had were on Sipan. It is this version that I have based this recipe on and I have been faithful to the original in all but one area; the type of anchovies used. This might seem somewhat sacrilegious, but there is good reason for it. I was surprised when I ate this dish that what looked like common salted anchovies were not too salty to be consumed in this way. I had assumed that the capers and vinegar had played a role in this, but when I replicated the dish at home using tinned anchovies they were much too salty. I do not know where or how to find the mild flavoured brown anchovies used in that restaurant, so I have substituted for marinated white anchovies. This was the only time that we were not served white marinated anchovies, so one could argue that they are more representative of our Dalmatian experience overall.
Left: my attempt using salted anchovies. Right: the recipe using marinated white anchovies
Since I want to be as true as possible to the dish we ate on Sipan, I have not made any other substitutions or additions, but were I to elaborate on the original I would recommend adding a teaspoon or 2 of the vinegar in which the capers are preserved, instead of or as well as the white or red wine vinegar and perhaps some chopped parsley. I would also specify kalamata, rather than generic black olives and might add a few extra, sliced and sprinkled over the dish along with the onions and tomatoes.
The dish was perfectly designed for sharing, and whether intentional or not, this is how we approached every meal. Crusty bread accompanied every meal and is ideal for mopping up the delicious juices. This dish serves two as a starter.
Ingredients
Method
The method is so simple it barely warrants explaining; basically you just put all the ingredients on a plate together and serve. To replicate the dish as we had it, you should arrange the anchovies on a plate in a star shape, drizzle over the olive oil and vinegar, sprinkle over the capers, onion and tomato and garnish with 3 olives in the centre of the star. You could, of course, split the ingredients between 2 plates for individual starters if preferred.
