In Vietnam, small fish similar in size to smelts may fried or simmered in bittersweet caramel sauce and fish sauce to be eaten with rice. In America, I often see frozen smelts and they're better simmered as a companion to rice. When I spy fresh, diminutive smelts from local waters, I fry them as a quick snack to go along with beer or bubbly.
Here in the Monterey Bay, I typically buy them at a local fishmonger. Where can you find smelts? Smelts are a varied family of fish. They may be harvested from lakes and rivers, as well as oceans. Ask for them, if you don't see them readily.
Size Matters for Frying Smelts
Smelts can grow to 8 inches long. For frying, I prefer small ones because the flavor is lighter and their compact bodies lend to frying very well. Scale-wise, this photo is close to the tiny fish’s true size. Don’t fear bones. They aren’t noticeable. And what about the guts? They are barely, barely bitter. In other words, you can fry them up as is and eat them like French fries!
A Light Coating and Fast Fry
For a delicate, crisp coating, I simply used flour and cornstarch. You can use regular all-purpose flour but I use Bob Red Mill's 1:1 Gluten-Free flour blend that features sweet and brown rice flours plus different starches. I stockpiled it during the pandemic, thinking I needed to develop a bunch of gluten-free baked goods recipes for my cookbook (I didn’t need to). So, I’ve been coming up with ways to use up he flour blend. It’s proven to be good for coating things destined for frying. It’s not totally crisp but it’s more crisp than regular wheat flour. In any event, adding cornstarch (or potato starch), helps to firm things up for the frying.
Coating twice in flour puts a nice coating on the fish. I season with curry powder and salt but you can use a favorite seasoning blend.
Frying was slightly dramatic in the wok but it went by very fast. Once the fish settled down in the oil, the splattering subsided. Totally frying time was no more than 2 minutes. As the fish cooled briefly, open up a companion beverage -- beer, sparkling water, champagne. My my husband opened a bottle of cava. The crispy fried smelts and bubbly were a smashing hit for an early evening snack.
Fried little fishies like these are super easy to make. There's little time commitment involved. You can make them faster than you can get yourself to a restaurant to order something similar that honestly won't taste as good!
Fried Smelts
Ingredients
- 5 to 6 ounces fresh smelts, the smaller the better
- ¼ cup Bob's Red Mill 1:1 Gluten-Free all-purpose flour blend (see Note for subbing)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch or potato starch
- Fine Sea Salt
- ⅛ teaspoon Madras Curry Powder
- 1 to 2 teaspoons milk (I used soy milk but cow’s milk is fine)
- About 1 cup neutral oil, such as canola or peanut
- Lemon wedges
- Hot sauce
Instructions
- Use a paper towel to pat excess moisture from the fish. Put them in a bowl and add the flour, starch, ⅛ teaspoon salt, and the curry powder. Toss the fish to lightly coat.
- Transfer the fish to a plate or small baking sheet. Drizzle on 1 teaspoon of milk and use a spoon to turn and coat the fish. If they’re not wet looking, add milk by the ½ teaspoon.
- Put the fish back into the flour bowl and toss to coat. (They’ll look chalky as they’re now double coated.). If you need more coating, add more flour, starch, salt and curry powder.
- Pour oil into a wok to a depth of ½ inch. Set over medium heat. (If you want, protect the floor near the stove with newspaper.) When the oil is around 350F (test with a dry chopstick and the oil should immediately bubble around the chopstick), add as many fish as possible without crowding. Stir gently and turn the fish, as needed. When golden and crisp, 1 to 2 minutes, use a spider to lift the fish from the oil. Hold the spider over the wok for a few seconds to allow oil to drip back, then deposit the fish onto a paper towel to drain.
- Cool a few minutes, sprinkle extra salt on top and serve with lemon wedges and or hot sauce. Eat immediately!
