Anyone for anchovies?

Small, silvery fresh anchovies are not often seen on menus. The public are not terribly comfortable about ordering them, being more used to seeing the fillets come out of cans.

Given the opportunity to eat a firm, fresh anchovy, more people are likely to give them a go, as their strong, oily flavour is quite unique.

Fished from the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean as far north as the Brittany coast, the 4-6in anchovy is so fragile that it does not transport easily. This is why they are more readily available in their preserved form - either salted, canned in oil or jarred in a marinade.

The preserved ones are normally cleaned and their heads removed before being packed in barrels of salt for anything between three and 18 months, when they turn from silver to a deep red colour.

Being so salty, it is best to soak them, overnight if possible, in water or preferably milk, before use.

Fresh anchovies are most readily available in the summer months. They are easily prepared by snapping off their heads, and as you pull the head away, the innards come too. They are so soft that they can be split and filleted with a fingernail.

Their prices usually hover between £1.50-£2.20 per lb. A 2kg tub of preserved anchovies costs around £17.

Although closely related to sardines and herrings, their distinctive receding lower jaw gives them an unusual appearance.

The last recorded catch of anchovies in British waters was in the late 1970s when a Spanish trawler landed 70 tonnes in Newlyn, Cornwall.

However, lack of interest from the British market meant the trawler returned with its cargo intact to its home port.

Chefs that favour using fresh anchovies today are those who lean towards a Mediterranean style of cooking, combining the fish with the indigenous produce of the region - garlic, olive oil, lemon and tomatoes.

With the British public's reluctance to try them, few chefs are brave enough to incorporate them in anything other than an appetiser.

Preserved anchovies are more widely seen, in salads (most commonly, caesar salad and salade Niáoise) or as a topping on pizzas. They have long been used as an ingredient for decorating savoury buffet dishes, particularly egg mayonnaise.

Their usefulness in adding piquancy to a dish is unquestionable; their high salt content avoids the need to use any more.

Thai cooking recognises the flavour-enhancing qualities of anchovies, using them as the basis of Nam Pla, Thai fish sauce, which is simply the collected juices of salted anchovies.

A more surprising, but most successful, use of anchovies is in their accompaniment to meat dishes. In his recent book Roast Chicken and Other Stories, Simon Hopkinson says anchovies are best used to flavour and season a joint of meat, particularly lamb.

"Little pieces of anchovy inserted deep into the muscles of a leg of lamb, together with some garlic slivers, impart the most agreeable contrast of flavours," he says.

To insert the anchovies make about 12 incisions 5cm deep in the fleshy side of a lamb joint. Then, insert a piece of garlic, half an anchovy and a small sprig of rosemary in each, pushing them in with your little finger. Smearing the surface of the meat with anchovy butter intensifies the flavour. Curiously enough for such an intensely fishy fish, it ceases to taste fishy when used like this, he adds.

Jansson's Temptation is one of the most requested dishes at Anna's Place in Islington, London. It is an anchovy pie, made with anchovies from owner Anna Hegarty's native Sweden.

It is popular in winter, and is traditionally a classical constituent of a smorgasbord. It is also eaten as a late-night savoury when, according to Swedish tradition, guests are offered something salty to eat to accompany an ice-cold schnapps or beer in the small hours before they leave. It is vital to use only Swedish anchovies in this dish, stresses Hegarty. "I import them direct from Sweden. They are cured with spices, salt, pepper, sherry and brine and have a unique, slightly sweet flavour.

Sally Clarke of Clarke's restaurant, London, says she does not put fresh anchovies on her set-dinner menu because "too many people would turn their noses up at them" - but she has successfully introduced them on lunch menus. She either grills them with extra virgin olive oil, cracked pepper and thyme leaves, or serves them raw, marinated in lemon juice, with a salad of mixed leaves.

Antony Worrall Thompson of dell'Ugo, London, favours marinating fresh anchovies himself in olive oil and fresh herbs, dismissing the ready-marinated version as "disgusting". He serves his marinated anchovies with grilled vegetables - peppers, fennel, courgettes and aubergines.

He uses tinned anchovies to pack a punch in flavour to a salad dressing; for flavouring chargrilled squid or for drizzling over a dish of aubergine, goat's cheese and red peppers.

The anchovy and oregano dressing combines anchovy fillets soaked in milk, oregano or marjoram, garlic, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, black pepper and sun-dried tomatoes.

Like Hopkinson, Worrall Thompson favours partnering salted anchovies with meat. "I always add an anchovy to a casserole. Surprisingly, it adds a beefiness to the dish, and provides the necessary salt content without the crudeness of salt."

Anchovies are most often seen served as an appetiser or amuse-gueule. It is a good way of introducing them to a reluctant public and getting the gastric juices going. Favourites include the versatile pastes of anchoïade (anchovies and garlic) and tapenade (anchovies and black olives) used for spreading on bread, as a dip, or for stuffing hard-boiled eggs and vegetables.

At the Spanish restaurant La Giralda in Pinner, Middlesex, David Brown serves preserved anchovies as tapas. Slices of ciabatta are brushed with olive oil, topped with an anchovy fillet and slice of Spanish blue cheese and popped under the grill.

Stefano Cavallini, head chef at the Halkin Hotel, London, marinates raw, fresh anchovies "en escabèche" in either olive oil and basil, or orange juice and ginger to nibble at the start of a meal.

One of the most prolific users of anchovies is Jonathan Harrison, head chef at the Swallow Hotel, Birmingham. He first experienced cooking with them during a three-month stint with Alain Ducasse at the Hotel de Paris, Monte Carlo, having won the 1993 Roux Diners Scholarship.

"We used anchovies every day because they were fresh - straight from the Mediterranean, abundant and very cheap," he explains.

By deboning a fresh anchovy, filling it with a mushroom and mozzarella stuffing, and baking it in fish stock, Harrison creates a delicious starter, which is served with deep-fried pancetta and salad.

Alternatively, he makes a brandade using fresh anchovies in place of salt cod. A paste of the pounded anchovies, garlic and olive oil is used to fill small tartlets which are baked and topped with deep-fried quail eggs.

Besides appetisers, his brigade creates a gourmand salad, which includes fresh anchovies as well as tuna fillets, langoustines, roasted peppers marinated in garlic and shallots, deep-fried potatoes, salad leaves, diced cucumber in dill yogurt, deep- fried artichokes and quail eggs.

The British alternative to anchovies - pilchards - have yet to achieve the same interest from chefs. This could change if plans by Nick Howell of British Cured Pilchards to promote them to the British market take off.

Howell's pilchards are salted in the winter, then cold pressed in the summer to remove natural oils and water. At present, he exports 120 tonnes of them to Italy each year.