Deep fried “candied” whole smelt
Mommy cooked smelt with roe from Wee ( https://www.sayweee.com/en/product/Oceankist-Wild-Caught-Smelt-Fish-with-Roe--Frozen-1/43336 ) in a 椒盐 style, which I really liked but she thought was too much effort. I again bought these from Wee, and first tried a rough recreation of this recipe ( https://www.seriouseats.com/deep-fried-shishamo-recipe ). I generally followed the recipe but added an additionally marinating step where I let the fish sit in black pepper, white pepper, and Chinese rice wine. The result was good, but as a single person there was only so much deep fried smelt I could consume. So, I changed gears, boiling the dipping sauce, adding the fish marinating juice, and adding honey to form a sweet stock/syrup. I then simmered the deep-fried fish to get a 鲟鱼 kind of effect. My friends from India really liked this rendition, it was a surprise hit!
Fried fish
600 grams smelt with roe, no cleaning/preparation necessary but I would rinse them since they can have parasites.
black pepper (1 tablespoon? I grind it fresh, added a lot
white pepper (probably 1 tablespoon)
Chinese cooking wine (a splash)
flour for dusting fish
Sauce
1 dashi bag
1 cup water
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar (can probably omit this since we are adding honey)
Honey (a good amount)
Procedure
Marinade fish in black pepper, white pepper, and rice wine for about 30 minutes
Meanwhile, make base sauce by adding sauce ingredients except honey in a pot and boiling them for 5 minutes. Let this sit with the pouch while frying fish, remove the pouch before further processing.
Pat the fish dry, then cover with flour
Deep fry fish until crispy
At this stage can eat as many fish as you want before proceeding :)
Bring sauce back to a boil, add honey and water until sauce is to desired sweetness. Add in marinating juice for fish.
Turn off heat and add in fish, make sure fish is covered with liquid.
Let this sit for a while for flavors to marry, e.g. overnight in fridge
Enjoy cold