Crunchy Deep-fried Sprats Recipe

How to make it

---

• Take one whole sprat, belly up, head pointing away from you, and cut with a very sharp knife along the belly from the vent to the gills. Put the fish down and cut off the head. Cut the belly again from the vent to the tail. Using a teaspoon, scrape the innards out well.
• Repeat with all the fish, then rinse out well and dry. Spread out on kitchen paper on a plate, and keep refrigerated until needed.
• Take the slices of bread and cut crusts off, and process bread into breadcrumbs. Save the crusts – you can use them (suggestion to be posted later) See Photo. Put the crumbs in a medium-sized bowl, along with the garlic powder, onion powder, Vegeta, salt, mustard powder and pepper. Mix together well. Set aside.
• In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flours.
• Crack the eggs in a shallow bowl, and beat lightly.
• Roll the sprats, half-a-dozen at a time, in the flour, then submerge them in the egg for a few seconds, then put them in the seasoned breadcrumbs. Shake them about until fully coated. Lay them out on a large plate as you go. Carry on until all fish are coated.
• In a large pan, heat about ½-¾" oil. When hot enough for deep-frying (about 350°F) , place half-a-dozen fish in the pan, not too many, in order to keep the temperature of the oil up. Begin to time 3 minutes. Turn the fish over half-way through. After 3 minutes (or maybe a little more if the half-dozen fish you are doing are bigger than the rest), lift them out and drain them on kitchen paper. Nosh on these until your heart's content See Photo. This should serve as a snack for about four people. Not even Tom and I could finish these between us.
• Note: Sprat is the common name applied to a group of forage fish (small pelagic fish which are preyed on by larger predators for food) which belong to the genus Sprattus in the family Clupeidae (for instance herrings, sardines, shad, hilsa, menhaden and anchovies). The term is also applied to a number of other small sprat-like forage fish. Like most forage fishes, sprats are highly active small oily fish. They travel in large schools with other fish and swim continuously throughout the day.

crusts off!   Close

Nosh away   Close