What started as a little appetizer to the Summer Paella in the Park recipe and photoshoot turned into a viral hit on Instagram and TikTok. Look, it’s fun to go viral, and I couldn’t be happier about it, but it can be distracting. So, almost a month later, I’m finally making good on my promise to teach everyone in the comment section how to do this.
The video is fairly self-explanatory, but let’s go through it properly so you can ensure you have everything you need.
Ingredients
Tinned fish (sardines, octopus, cod, razor clams, anything works)
Fresh bread or crackers
Manchego cheese
Maldon Salt
Basil
Garlic
Olive oil
Equipment
Charcuterie board or cutting board
One sheet of paper towel per tin
Small metal sheet pan to extinguish the flames, or something similar
Lighter
Tongs
Cheese knife
Spoons
Method
Step 1: Prep the Board
Arrange the bread, cheese, and whatever else you have on the board.
For the tomato spread:
Place 3-4 canned tomatoes in a small bowl.
Add some pressed garlic, a big pinch of Maldon salt, a generous glug of olive oil, and a few torn-up basil leaves. I like to mix everything up by snipping a pair of scissors through the tomatoes and kind of stirring it around. Leave it to rest for at least 10 minutes.
Step 2: For the Tins
Open your tinned fish. Make sure that you remove the lids completely. The first time I left them on for the photoshoot, but nope, get rid of them.
Take a piece of paper towel, fold it in half, and rip it so that about 1” hangs over every side of the tins.
Press them down into the tins so they soak up a bit of the oil.
Once they look ready, carefully light the edge of the paper and let them burn down until the middle of the oil-soaked paper starts to blacken.
This process is heating the oil, crisping up the skin on the fish, and amplifying any herbs, spices, citrus, or other flavours that are in your tins.
Once it looks ready, carefully place the small pan on top of the tins to snuff them out.
That’s it! Pop some cava, open a bottle of chilled white wine, or crack a beer. We’ve still got three solid weeks of summer ahead of us – let’s make them count!
