Fried Small Little Fish

Fried Female Capelins

Although they are small but these are actually mature fish. They actually grow to between six to eight inches in length and the female capelins, as they are named, have eggs in their belly. It is a delicacy in Korean, Japanese and Chinese cooking. We like them fried. In fact that is the only cooking method that I have ever known of these fish. I am sure there are other recipes but I am good with just frying these small delicious fish.

Delicious Little Fish

We usually fry them with rice and corn flour mix batter. And in Korean and Japanese restaurants, they are fried with tempura batter. I have used belacan powder and also fried them plain with sprinkle of salt. And that was how I fried a batch of these small female capelins yesterday for dinner. I rub a little bit of salt on the fish and deep fried them, a few a time, in a pot of cooking oil. It took me about twenty minutes to fry about thirty pieces of these fish.