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

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赛螃蟹(“Mock Crab”)