Anyone else love anchovies, blue cheese, capers...

[carfreemama]

All the strong, stinky stuff everyone else goes "eeewww" over?

Care to share recipes? Particularly anchovies, beyond the usual pizza.

No one else in the family will eat this stuff; so it's just for me and my dog walker, who I cook for once a week and is very appreciative...

Thanks!

[velochic]

I don't like capers because I don't like pickled anything. But the rest, we all eat. I melt anchovies into sauces a lot and one of our favorite appetizers is grilled polenta with gorgonzola cream sauce. We travel a lot, so we get exposed to a lot of interesting foods and dh is not American. We eat a lot of ethnic food and even the typical American dishes I make usually have some odd, ethnic twist. Dh and dd (8) love the pickles, though, and they like other foods that I don't, so they have even more variety than I do. We're headed abroad next week and dd is already talking about new foods that she will get to try. We love culinary adventures.

[carfreemama]

Velochic, have a wonderful time! I would love to hear about your culinary adventures, if you care to update.

[cristeen]

Love em!

Anchovies and capers go into almost every pan of pasta i make, whether it's a butter sauce or tomato sauce. Seriously, no one would know they're there if i didnt tell them (the anchovies, anyway).

We always have blue cheese in the house. We love it on beef (steak, burgers, etc), salad (crumbled or dressing), in mac and cheese, with fruit (particularly figs).

[la mamita]

there is a great recipe for anchovies, broccoli rabe, parmasean cheese and pasta. it's actually really mild, as far as anchovies go, and most people wouldn't even realize the anchovies were there. but it is so delicious! here it is

[academama]

I love all of the above! I don't cook with anchovies much because my husband isn't a huge fan. I put them into Caesar dressing and there's a pasta dish that I will make just for me once a year or so with the leftover anchovies from the dressing.

[ChocolateNummies]

Me

But I don't usually cook with them - I just eat them alone or with a fruit/cracker. Nobody else really likes anchovies or capers here & dd is dairy free. I'm in the kitchen enough already just making our regular meals so don't bother trying them out in recipes.

This last pregnancy I was craving so much salty stuff I'd get a can of anchovies and eat them plain on crackers or on toasted bread with some olive oil. The whole time I was eating them I'd be thinking how salty they were but I just couldn't stop.

Oh and my sister got me a jar of capers last year for Christmas.

[jessemoon]

Ooh...me too! Anything pickled and salty and sour and stinky (except Kim Chee...can't handle that) is my favorite. I'll choose pickled things over cookies any day!

[puffingirl]

My mom makes an egg-less Caesar dressing with anchovies that I craved (and devoured) throughout my pregnancy. YUM! I love the stinky, salty, strong flavors. When DH and I were in Italy years ago we had fresh anchovies cooked in lemon and olive oil, served cold. Unbelievably good! Nobody else in this house eats blue cheese so I usually wait until I visit my folks to have it. But we do capers in lots of things---DD is very fond of pickled, salty stuff: capers, olives, pickles, whatever.

[robugmum]

Me Me Me!! Actually, we all pretty much love those things 'round here! My favourite pizza is tomato sauce, capers, anchovies, and basil, no cheese required!

[JessicaS]

I like capers, I use them in a lot of pasta dishes.

I strongly believe you cannot make chicken picatta without them.

[carfreemama]

Glad to know there are others out there!

There's a local blue cheese with no visible mold called Dragon's Breath. I LOVE that stuff.

Dh will not eat pizza at the same table with me if it has anchovies.

I will try the pasta dish, but hope the anchovies aren't visible.

Anchovies with lemon and olive oil is my vision of heaven. We will be in Spain next year, wonder if they have something similar?

I do make a lovely tuna and caper salad that dh loves, so maybe I'll work on pushing caper dishes a bit more and then work on the anchovies. I hear anchovies are super-healthy, too.

What about sardines?

Thanks!

[mamandedeux]

Carfreemama, are you in Halifax? I have a serious addiction to all of the above, and spend wayyyyyy too much on Dragon's Breath.

[redvlagrl]

Mmmmmm. Love them all!

I throw a few capers into the pan at the end of cooking some salmon. They go all crispy and yum. I then pour them and the pan juices all over my salmon.

Anchovies get stuffed into slits in my leg of lamb along with garlic and rosemary. Delish (and you wouldn't know they were there). Also in pasta sauce.

Blue cheese - love it in risotto.

[2xy]

Pasta tossed with garlic and olive oil, salt and pepper, anchovies, capers, artichoke hearts, eggplant, kalamata olives, and roasted red peppers.

Bleu cheese is delicious melted atop a burger.

[Caneel]

Capers not so much but yes to anchovies and blue cheese!

DH and I used to frequent a restaurant, sadly now closed, that had the most amazing Cesar salads with anchoives.

I like to melt lots and lot of them down in a pan and make a simple pasta sauce with olive oil and diced tomato.

I like blue cheese (and all strong cheeses) on plain crackers, toast or matzo.

Like night I did roasted butternut squash topped with blue cheese crumbles.

[Juvysen]

*love* capers. Anchovies are pretty good. Bleu cheese is tasty. also goat cheese...

[academama]

My most common use for capers:

Dredge flounder fillets in a bit of flour with cracked pepper. Place on an oiled pan and bake. When they're crispy and golden, pour over the sauce:

* 1 lemon's juice
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 2 cloves minced/pressed garlic
* generous heaping tablespoon or so of capers

Bake again just long enough for the sauce to get hot. The fish turns out crispy, lemony, etc.--and the capers are the totally necessary final touch.

[Magelet]

capers yes, the rest no. (I like anchovies, but not on pizza. If I can't see them, I'm a fan )

My mom used to make halibut, pan fried in butter, capers and lemon juice. It's way out of my price range, but it's delicious. I haven't tried it with other fish yet.

[carfreemama]

Thanks for all the recipes and ideas, everyone! I have one night a week when I eat supper alone and I always try to make something special for myself that no one else will eat.

Mamandedeux, yes, I'm in Halifax!

I've found Dragon's Breath travels really well in the mail, too; I've sent it often as a gift to my family/friends in Ontario and BC. One year I sent it with some Nova Scotia ice wine as a very special gift to my mother and sister.

I'm amazed at all the incredible food that's produced here.