Black Sea Bake · Anchovy Cornbread

Hamsili Ekmek (Anchovy Bread)

📷 Closely related photo — Photo: E4024 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Black Sea cooks turn anchovies into dozens of dishes, including hamsili pilav, rice baked inside a casing of whole anchovies.

Fresh Black Sea anchovies are cleaned and mixed into, or layered over, a cornmeal batter with onion, greens and herbs, then baked into a savory cornbread. Bakeries and home cooks along the Trabzon and Rize coast make it whenever the anchovy catch comes in.

Why it's made this way: The Black Sea's cold waters produce some of Turkey's biggest anchovy hauls each winter, and coastal towns built entire food cultures, this sandwich included, around eating the fish while it's at its freshest.