Portugal: sardinhas na brasa, grilled sardines

It's that time of year when the sardines are running; the wonderful intoxicating aroma as they cook is everywhere as smoke rises from charcoal grills in what seems like every restaurant in every sea side village up & down the coast of Portugal. Not just along the coastline, all over Portugal, the arrival of sardine season is looked forward to, an important contribution to the rich & varied culinary traditions of this land.

Wandering the ever repeating intricate pattern of narrow cobbled lanes that rise & fall here in the old part of Coimbra, medieval capital city to the Portuguese province of Beira, situated on the north bank of the Mondego river & home to one of Europe's oldest universities, I find myself in what can only be described as a daze of delicious dream dilerium. Smells trigger memories, this is one that transports me to a time, twenty years ago, when, newly arrived on this side of the world & mesmerised by all things Portuguese, I spent the summer sleeping rough on the beaches near Vale do Lobo in the Algarve, working tables in a local restaurant by day, mixing drinks in a beach bar by night. Fresh sardines, grilled outdoors over coals, satisfyingly smokey, tasty with lemon & oil & salt, perfectly suited to a backpacker's meagre budget, they were a great discovery & a frequent treat for me that summer.
It was a two-fold pleasure then, returning not only to this country I fell in love with as a young traveller, but arriving to this coast as the first fires were lit for the new season of sardines.Needless to say, I'm making up for seasons missed...

mis-en-plus:

• charcoal fire to a slow burning ember;
• wire racks in a pair, to sandwich the fish in between when grilling;
• kit: medium saucepan (for the spuds), chopping board & medium mixing bowl (salad prep), condiment set (olive oil, a nice white wine vinegar, salt), serving plates & a spoon & fork for each person; foil is a good idea, a hot cloth or two (not mother's choicest linen, they don't seem to like that), a pair of thongs might come in handy, too.

ingredients:

• freshly caught sardines, 6 person;
• 3 or 4 smallish boiling/all purpose potatoes, such as agria, peeled,  per person;
• olive oil for cooking, & for the salad a tomato, sliced thickly, iceberg lettuce leaves washed & torn once, an onion sliced in rounds as thinly as you can, a carrot washed peeled grated

method:

• boil the potatoes, covered in water, with a decent pinch of salt. The test is, when you can slide knife through one of the spuds without resistence, they's done;
• toss the salad ingredients together, dressing with oil & vinegar when served, or better yet people can dress it at the table once they've served themselves;
• once the charcoals are perfectly glowing, lay the fish whole between the wire racks, brushing them with olive oil for flavour also helps them not stick to the metal when cooked;
• grill the sardines first one one side then the other, simply flipping the wire rack sandwich thingy (you can get them with a hinge, & they're great...if you can find them that is! I´m happy to use 2 of my old biscuit cooling wire racks & it works fine...then of course there was the ever versatile supermarket trolley & wiresnips trick, um, heaven forbid)
• turned once is fine, they cook quickly & can be eaten whole, or forked from the bones if you must, just make sure you chew them bones just in case.
• in Portuguese seaside grills, all the fish, filleted or whole is cooked this way, drizzled with oil, sprinkled with salt, smokey & charred black by the coals; 
• to finish, a squeeze of lemon, served or plated whole, toss the salad separately, dress the potatoes in olive oil & butter & serve separately too..

Along a raised counter, in a back street restaurant known for its comida tipico, its simple cooking of local & traditional dishes, men come in for lunch & sit shoulder to shoulder, looking round at the newcomers but mainly sitting hunched, concentrating on the business ofthe meal. There are protocols, & every person you meet will tell you in definite terms just how your meal is to be not only prepared but eaten too. With sardines, red wine. a caraf of the house wine is standard, but there are some truly magnificent wines produced in Portugal, well deserving of the effort it might take to find them back at home.

As a final note, a last lingering backward glance to those days when I wandered the Algarve alone, soaking it all up, in love with the world & blissfully adrift. Hitchiking westward in the diretion of Cape St Vincent, two German guys gave me a ride, took me in & put me up at the little whitewashed stone dwelling down next to a beach set between cliffs . We'd drive up the dusty road to a store on the main road where a fisherman would sell his catch from the back of his ute. For roughly 3 quid, a supermarket shopping back full of sardines. Dinner.

• gutting them & ripping open the bellies I'd pinch the heads & remove the backbone, laying them open on our own wire rack bbq;
• tomatoes grew wild, their vines a sprawl across the ground, & I'd gather them up with oregano, also growing untrained, & almonds which lay strewn about, fallen from trees growing along the pathway that led down to the beach;
• forming a rough paste, with a little olive oil & salt to season, I´d cover the sardines & the fish would be spread on their open side, placed between the wire, grilled over the open coals.

Squatted there on our haunches, waiting for the sardines to cook, the sea air whipping smoke from the fire into our eyes & fumigating our clothes with that pungent smell of grilled sardines, we´d drink our vino tinto from flat bottomed glasses & pass the smokes around. Our needs were simple. It´s a memory that fills me with nostalgia as I sit here now, thinking back to that scene. Pausing over my keyboard a moment, a shiver runs through me though outside there´s still plenty of warmth in the Portuguese afternoon sun. Time to quit the typing & go buy a bottle, take a stroll down to the beach & find me some sardines..