In the Greek Orthodox Church, there are two days during Great Lent when fish are permitted: March 25th (Annunciation of the Virgin Mary) and Palm Sunday. Today is Palm Sunday so we are presenting yet another fish dish. Although we are also serving traditonal Fried Cod (see last year's entry), we are presenting a dish that is also dear to our family - fried smelts.
Smelts are a special snack for us. We use them as a filler for any fish dinner we have, and we use them as mezedes (appetisers) at other times. The most common way we know to make smelts is to fry them. Although we know some restaurants will grill them, roast them, or even bake them. It is a popular choice to fry them, and for us, it is an easy meal. And, because of their small size, smelts cook rather quickly.
Smelts are a small fish that are sometimes used as bait fish. Smelts are a cold water fish that are fresh in the winter months, otherwise they are found in the freezer section of the grocery store. But in the winter months, it is tastiest to buy nice fresh ones. The backbone of the fish is very soft and is often eaten. In fact, the whole fish is often eaten, head, tail and all. They have a rich flavour, and eating the backbone gives them a nice crunch that is difficult to achieve from only frying.
Because smelts are so versatile, you can use them as mezedes or a meal, you can use them as a snack with dips, with lemon, or plain. But, if you ask anyone, you will probably hear the mouth watering description of the best way to fry smelts, because everyone has a best way. We have our way, which is a twist on the traditional way.
So, in order to make this recipe, you will want to know about one of our favourite breading for fish made by Zatarain's, the leader in New Orlean's seasoning products. The Zatarain's Fish Fri, in our household is used on many occasions. It IS vegan (no eggs or milk) for those who want to use it for coating veggies such as potatoes or eggplants, has tones of light pepperiness (cayenne, actually), some lemony hints (due to ground lemon zest). Well, you get it, it's nicely seasoned with no need to add any other seasonings or salt. Last year, we talked about a Zatarain's mix, and while we shop for various products, we ran across this fish fry product. Since we like the products made by this company, we thought we would try this fish fry coating. Our judgement was correct to buy this. Now, we use this on a variety of fish when we fry fish. And today, we used it on the smelts. It is pre-seasoned, so we added nothing to it.
We bought fresh smelts at the fish monger. Thy are small and cleaned, meaning the heads, scales, and the guts are removed. The fins and the backbone are left on the fish. Leave everything as is, and wash the fish under running cold water. Let the fish dry some, but not to the point where they are dry. You need the fish to be moist to hold on to the breading. If you were using frozen smelts, which is a very common way to find them any time, then allow the smelts to thaw completely, and rinse them to make sure there is no residue on them.
Get the breading ready. Since we used a prepackaged breading, we simply put some into a zipper-seal bag. If we were using seasoned flour, we would just put that in a baggie with some salt and pepper, or some Old Bay Seasoning; or, you could use a shallow bowl instead of the bag. The prepackaged mix by Zatarain's is a combination of flour, cornmeal, seasonings. We believe that it is the cornmeal that gives such a nice crunch after frying. And, you can see the grainy texture of this coating. Perhaps if we used flour, we may add some cornmeal to it to get a little extra crunch!
Drop a few fish into the baggie. You don't want to add too many, because you want to make sure that each fish is fully covered -- inside, outside, and everything in between. Drop the fish into the bag and seal it, or spin it so you can have a very tight grip at the top with no air holes. Make sure there is some air in the bag, though, so the fish have room to move around while you shake the bag. And, give the smelts a few shakes to make sure that everything is coated evenly.
Remove those few fish from the bag and set them aside. Repeat this process until all the smelts are coated and look uniform. Make sure to coat your hands before touching the coated smelts, though, because you don't want to leave fingerprints on the smelt, where there would be no breading.
Next, make sure that you have everything ready for the frying. Once you start frying, it is very difficult to stop and take the time to prepare the rest of the items. So, you want to make sure to have a plate with paper towels to transfer the cooked fish on to this plate when they are done being fried. And, you will need some utensils with which to do that. We chose a pair of tongs and a large slotted 'spider' to move our smelts. The spider works well because you can scoop up several smelts at once. The tongs are handy to help you move the smelts around in the pan. You can use forks, slotted spoons, fryer baskets, and so many other tools -- it depends on what you are comfortable using. So, we laid paper towels on a plate, lined up our fish and our utensils, and heated the oil for frying.
You will know the oil is hot enough for frying when you sprinkle a little of the fish fry coating or flour in the oil. First, you will hear the hissing sound, "tssss," as the coating sizzles. Next, you will see the reaction of the coating - it surfaces and turns darker in colour. When that happens with your oil, start putting in the smelts one by one. Please make sure that the fish do not touch each other -- they may stick together in the oil, and then it becomes very messy to separate them.
While the smelts are cooking, you will see the activity in the oil. There will be a lot of bubbles, you will continue to hear the sizzle sound. You know that the fish are just about done when the "oil settles down." That means, the boiling, bubbling, and sounds will minimise. And, you will notice that beautiful golden colour. This took about 3 1/2 minutes to fry the smelts to perfection. We tried as much as 5 minutes, but that was too much and the smelts disintegrated under the coating. We found that 3 1/2 minutes of cooking gave us a succulent smelt inside a lightly crunchy coating.
When the smelts are cooked, lay them on the paper towels to absorb any excess oil. You can see in this photo that there is a collection of oil building around the pile of smelts. Try to keep the pile to one layer, maybe two layers tall. Otherwise, the oil will just saturate the smelts on the bottom of the pile, without ever reaching the paper towel.
While the smelts are hot, sprinkle a little salt and lemon juice on them, then, transfer to your serving dish. Serve immediately for the best taste. If you have to reheat these, it is best to do that in the oven at 300° F for 3-5 minutes. Putting them in the microwave will make them soggy fish, and they won't have that little crunch! Although, in our family, we can eat smelts hot or room temperature, and there are rarely leftovers to re-heat. Smelts are also nice to serve with more lemon, a little hot sauce, or with a little skordalia on the side. Whether they are mezedes or a meal, we know that serving smelts will go over swimmingly with your family and friends.
"Jesus said to them, "How many loaves do you have?" And they (his disciples) said, "Seven, and a few little fish." So he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground. And He took the seven loaves and the fish and gave thanks, broke them and gave them to His disciples; and the disciples gave to the multitude. So they all ate and were filled, and they took up seven large baskets full of the fragments that were left. Now those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children."
Matthew 15:34-39
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