Anchovy and peanut stir-fry

Name: Anchovy and peanut stir-fry
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: Small dried anchovies 100 g; Roasted unsalted peanuts 50 g; Garlic 2 cloves; Cooking oil 1 tbsp; Soy sauce 1 tbsp; Cooking wine 1 tbsp; Oligosaccharide syrup or rice syrup 1 tsp; Sesame seeds 1 tsp

Less sugar and syrup, with peanuts carrying the flavour instead. Eating the fish whole is what keeps the calcium.

4 servings15 min

Ingredients

Small dried anchovies100 g
Roasted unsalted peanuts50 g
Garlic2 cloves
Cooking oil1 tbsp
Soy sauce1 tbsp
Cooking wine1 tbsp
Oligosaccharide syrup or rice syrup1 tsp
Sesame seeds1 tsp

Method

Slice the garlic thinly.
Toast the anchovies in a dry pan over medium-low heat for 2 minutes. The fishy smell goes and they crisp up. Set them aside.
Add the oil to the same pan and fry the garlic for 30 seconds until fragrant.
Add soy sauce, wine and syrup and let it bubble for just 30 seconds to thicken slightly. Longer and it sets hard.
Lower the heat, return the anchovies and toss quickly — within 30 seconds.
Off the heat, stir in the peanuts and sesame seeds.
Spread on a wide plate to cool. Piled up hot, they go soft.

Cooking note

The problem with anchovy side dishes is usually the seasoning. Getting them glossy and crisp normally takes a lot of sugar and syrup — and then you have traded a calcium gain for sugar and sodium. Peanuts add bite and richness, so half the seasoning still tastes right.

Toasting them dry first is the key step. The water has to leave before the sauce goes on, otherwise it soaks in and they never crisp.

Calcium does not come out into stock. Simmer anchovies for broth and discard them, and the calcium leaves with the fish. Eating them whole, as here, is the way to get it.

Sodium still needs watching. Dried anchovies are salty on their own — do not add more soy sauce than this.

Ingredients used here

Seafood

Strong evidence

Anchovy

1.45 g of EPA and DHA per 100 g. A cohort links small-fish intake to lower mortality — but only in women.

Nuts & seeds

Strong evidence

Peanuts

Across three cohorts of 206,000 people, mortality risk ran 17–21 % lower. Peanut butter showed no such association.

Vegetables

Moderate evidence

Garlic

The evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.