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!
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