Hamsili Pilav (Rice with Black Sea anchovies)

A lovely Black Sea dish, lovingly prepared by Mrs Blackbeard. Κυπριακά δαμαί.

Ingredients
500 gr hamsi/fresh anchovies
We find these in a Kurdish shop round the corner. I guess you could use sprats or small sardines even...
2 cups of rice (I used paella rice-anything will do)
Mint
1 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Fish stock if you have
Olive oil

Execution
In a saucepan, lightly fry the garlic and onion in olive oil. Add the rice and give it a stir. Add plenty of mint. You can use dill instead, and even pine nuts-we just didn't want little Blackbeard choking on them. Add 2 cups of water/fish stock for every cup of rice, add salt and allow to cook slowly until all the water is absorbed.

If the hamsi are not cleaned, clean them and open them up, removing the central bone. Lightly oil an oven dish and make a layer of hamsi with the skin side down. Also cover the sides of the dish, creating basically a lining of hamsi. Fill it with the cooked rice and seal the thing with another layer of hamsi at the top. Drizzle the top with olive oil. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Eat.

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