Smelts

mjd

mjd

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Hi,

My father loves to fish. He would often bring home buckets of smelts when they were in season. It's been ages since I've had any and I was pleasantly surprised to find them at my local WalMart. I just bread them with cornmeal and flour and fry. How do you cook them or have had them served?

Thanks in advance!
 
Sounds like what is done during the grunion run in California or rascal's white bait fixing. In south Florida we don't have any fish like that, but we do have the lobster march.
 
It does sound similar. I don't fish, personally, but I love fresh fish. The parents of some classmates in high school owned a local fish mart. One side sold fresh fish and the other sold cooked fish. You couldn't lose either way. Yum.

I've heard that lobster is fabulous. I'm allergic to shellfish so I've never had it. I used to get my in-laws a lobster box for Christmas. They seemed to enjoy them.
 
mjdlovescooking said:
It does sound similar. I don't fish, personally, but I love fresh fish. The parents of some classmates in high school owned a local fish mart. One side sold fresh fish and the other sold cooked fish. You couldn't lose either way. Yum.

I've heard that lobster is fabulous. I'm allergic to shellfish so I've never had it. I used to get my in-laws a lobster box for Christmas. They seemed to enjoy them.
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The lobster I'm talking about are Florida/Caribbean lobster (no claws, also called crayfish) and not Maine lobster.
 
They are normally coated in flour or batter and fried - you could use any sort of batter you like. A tempura batter would be good. Another way to cook them is on skewers over a BBQ (grill in the US) or under a grill (broiled in the US).
 
Marinated and skewered - recipe here. Recipes for the Spring Smelt Run

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Never tried those things. Our whitebait are tiny and transparent. I make patties with eggs and a bit of chopped mint. At the start of the season they are up to $120 kg in Auckland. I do swaps with people I know.

Russ

Thought I had a pic, can't find it.
 
rascal said:
Never tried those things. Our whitebait are tiny and transparent. I make patties with eggs and a bit of chopped mint. At the start of the season they are up to $120 kg in Auckland. I do swaps with people I know.

Russ

Thought I had a pic, can't find it.
Click to expand...

I looked whitebait up and they sound very similar to smelts. Smelts are just a bit larger than canned sardines. I've never done them into patties though. I have made canned salmon into patties (we call them croquettes).

Good you have some friends for swaps.
 
Small fish like Sprats, Smelts and Anchovies are delish if you hot smoke them using the indirect method. Its murder cleaning them so if we fry them we eat them with our hands. There are two old women on Stobrec harbor, who wade out nearly every days pulling a net between them. When they get back you can buy the little fish they catch.
 
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