Tempura smelts 生シシャモの天婦羅

I spotted fresh and cleaned smelt in our regular grocery store one day. Smelt is a small fish and, in Japan, a type of smelt is called "Karafuto shishamo" which is a common substitute for real "Shishamo" from Hokkaido. Capelin is also in the same family. The smelt spends most of its life in the sea but, like salmon, it swims up river to spawn.  The ones I got  were most likely fresh water smelt from the Great Lakes. In Japan, egg-bearing females are the most valued. None of the smelt in my “catch” appeared to have eggs. As usual, Japanese and English fish names are difficult to sort out.

The smelt I got were already cleaned (gutted and head off) but not dried like the ones in Japan. The most popular way to cook smelt here in the U.S. (if you are the type of person who would even consider eating smelt) is deep fried. Like shishamo, you can eat every thing including bones, tails and fins. I pondered how to cook them and decided to make a sort of tempura using a thin batter.

Smelt: This is fresh smelt, head off and cleaned. I got 1 lb which is good for 4 generous appetizer size servings.

Tempura batter: I used cake flour (4-5 tbs) and cold seltzer water (add and mix until it forms a thin batter) with a pinch of salt mixed in.

I heated peanut oil in a frying pan (1 inch deep) to 350F (180C) on medium flame. I dipped the smelt in the batter and deep fried it for 3-4 minutes turning over once.

I served this with a wedge of lemon, deep fried parsley, and green tea salt. You could make this in kara-age 唐揚げ (coated with potato starch) or more Western style with seasoned flour or cornmeal and some kind of dipping sauce as well. This was a perfect drinking snack and also a good source of calcium. This goes well with any drink.

Smelt Fry シシャモフライ

Smelt and Capelin (shishamo ししゃも) are all similar small fish and often (including myself) used almost interchangeably. Rarely I see “smelt” in a U.S. grocery store with head off and gutted. In oriental grocery stores, the whole fish is sold with head, gut and roe intact. If the fish has roe, all-the-better. Weee carries frozen “smelt” (label said capelin from Canada). We tried them twice so far and they are pretty good. The only problem is that it is sold in a package of 600grams (1.3 lb) of fish frozen together. I usually manage to semi-thaw them and divide it up into three or four smaller portions (7-8 fish per pack), vacuum pack and re-freeze them. It turned out these frozen smelt/capelin are quite good, probably best for frying rather than grilling. Japanese style slightly dried Capelin may be the best for grilling.

As suggested above, two common ways of cooking are grilled or fried. Frying can be “kara-age”; fried dredged with flour/potato starch, or tempura and fry with breading. The night I cooked the capelin I was also making arancini, so I breaded the capelin and fried it. I also fried  seasoned quail eggs. In the picture, the left two objects are halved arancini, center two are capelin fry and the right round one (half buried under the capelin) is a quail egg. Some of the capelin had roe and tasted especially good. The arancini was made from left-over shiitake risotto with a center of meting Mozzarella cheese which by definition could not taste bad.

There is no recipe for the Capelin fry. Dredge in flour, place it in egg water and bread it with Panko bread crumb and deep fry in 180F oil for several minutes. We are glad to now have reliable source  of smelt/capelin.

"Shisamo" smelt al ajillo ししゃものハーブオイル煮込み

Inventory control of my Japanese food stash in our freezer is not easy. Often I come across frozen fish items which need to be quickly consumed. I found a package of frozen "shishamo" シシャモ smelt the other day and I do not have a clue when I bought it but it still looked good.  I could have cooked them the usual way in the toaster oven or in a frying pan but I decided to slow-cook it in an herb olive oil a la "Gambas al ajillo" which I saw on the web.

This dish is more than just enjoying the fish but also soaking up the herb oil with a piece of baguette.

As usual I made some modification, the first of which was to make garlic chips. I removed them from the pan after they became brown and crispy and before cooking the fish. If I had left them in to cook with the fish they would have become bitter.  I added them back in after the fish was cooked.

Ingredients:
"Shishamo" Japanese smelt, frozen, one package (this had 10 small fish), not thawed
Olive oil, about 200ml
Fresh thyme, several sprigs
Garlic, two cloves, peeled and thinly sliced

Directions:
In a non-stick frying pan, I added the olive oil in low flame and the garlic until the garlic was golden and crispy but not bitter. I removed it from the oil (above).
In the remaining oil, I added the thyme and the fish (below) and cooked it on low flame for 10-15 minutes.

Mid-way through, I carefully turned the fish over (skin is very delicate and easily breakable).

I garnished with the thyme sprigs and served it with slices of baguette I had made. Although I used quite a few thyme springs, the thyme flavor was rather muted but the fish were very good (these had roe). The only problem was that this was an appetizer and the flavored oil with the baguette was so good that if we were not careful, and exercised a degree of restraint, this would have been dinner. The restraint was worthwhile though because they tasted even better the next day.

Deep fried Ayu ”sweet fish" 稚鮎の唐揚げ

"Ayu" 鮎 is a small river/lake fish and appears to have a special place in Kyoto cuisine 京料理  and the minds of people living in Kyoto. Many years ago we had the honor of dining at "Tankuma" たん熊 in Kyoto. This was not a "walk-up-to-the-door-and-automatically-be-seated" affair. It was the result of wheels within wheels and contacts of contacts. At that time, our sushi chef "Hajime" who worked at, now long closed, Mikado Japanese Restaurant at Tenleytown in DC,  had a friend, who was one of the chefs at Tankuma and had been sent to temporarily work at the Japanese embassy in Washington.  Based on Hajime's personal recommendation, we were given entre to Tankuma on our next trip to Kyoto. Hajime's friend seated us at a private counter (rather than a room) where we were attended by the careful ministrations of two chefs. We were served an incredible course of Kyoto cuisine. Inevitably, one of the dishes was grilled Ayu on pine needles 鮎の松葉焼.  My wife, in her usual style, meticulously cleaned the meat off the bone leaving behind the head and a pristine skeleton. The chefs were impressed with her chopsticks dexterity.  They took the perfect skeleton, deep fried it and re-introduced it as "bone senbei" 骨せんべい.

We have enjoyed ayu on many occasions since then but always grilled. I have never really understood what all the hoopla was about. It struck me as a rather humdrum little white meat fish. Recently, I saw a blog post about small deep fried ayu or "kara-gage" 唐揚げ.  We've never eaten it that way so I was curious about how it would taste. Then, this weekend, I saw fresh small ayu from Japan in the Japanese grocery store. They were fresh (not frozen) and directly from Japan (#1 in the composite below). They had clear eyes and looked good to me. I have never seen ayu sold here and bought it (this was the only package left). Since they were rather small or "Chiayu" 稚鮎, I decided to try "kara-age".



I probably put too much potato starch on the fish but this was good. I served this with our coleslaw and a wedge of lemon.



The major decision point was whether to leave or remove the innards. Traditionally, like Sanma さんま or Pacific saury, the innards of ayu are left in and eaten. For sanma (frozen), I usually remove them. I decided to leave the innards especially since they were small ayu and if my wife did not like it she could always remove the meat and leave them behind.

I washed the fish and, using a filet knife, removed the slimy mucus on the surface and small scales but did not removed the innards or fins (see below composite #2). I dried the surface and salted with Kosher salt. I let it sit in the refrigerator on a paper towel lined plate without a cover for several hours (see below and the composite #3), Kosher salt crystal melted and drew out some moisture.



I dried the surface with a paper towel and dredged with potato starch or katakuriko 片栗粉 (#4). I heated vegetable oil to 160C (320F) and deep fried the fish (#5) for 5 minutes one each side (#6). I removed the fish on a paper towel line plate and turned up the heat until the oil temperature went up to 175C (350F) and re-fried the fish for 2 minutes on each side.



Taking the clue from Icebreaker summer sake, I served "G" sake on the rocks.



We squeezed on the lemon and ate all of the ayu; starting with the head through to the crispy tail innards and all.  Now I understand what all the hoopla is about. This was very good. The meat melted in the mouth like butter and the bones gave a nice little crunch. The innards imparted a pleasant slight bitterness.  So after we finished, nothing was left on the plates. My wife asked if I could go back to the store tomorrow to get some more. (No, as I said, that was the last pack). Since the ayu is related to smelt, this way of cooking produced similar good results. The G sake on the rocks went very well and this will be a subject of another post.