Cravings!

There are no pregnancy cravings like first trimester pregnancy cravings.  When just can't eat anything -- can't even THINK of food without it making you gag (literally).  Suddenly, out of nowhere, it hits you, and you just HAVE TO HAVE A HOT DOG... NOW!!!  If you have to wait five minutes, it will probably be too late and the sight of it will make you puke again.

I am happy to report that that kind of pregnancy craving is behind me, leaving in its place the kind of everyday craving that all the non-pregnant people of the world can relate to.  Right now, top of my list is smelts.  Glorious smelts!

They must be in season, or maybe they're just a Lenten food.  For whatever reason, my local fish counter has been stocking them consistently for weeks.  Lucky me!

I grew up in a house where my mom, Italian-American, told fond stories of sitting around a big family table picking the spines out of smelts and eating them otherwise whole.  The idea captivated me.  Eating a fish whole!  I have always loved seafood and just adore the idea of a Christmas feast of the seven fishes.  Unfortunately, my dad (Swedish, of all things!) can't stand fish, so smelts were out of the question in our home.  Small fish that you have to pan fry (or bake, as my great grandmother did it) do not lend themselves to the ease of a surf-and-turf bbq, which was about the only way I ate fish growing up.  Unless it was my birthday, in which case I almost always requested bouillabaisse (seafood stew).

When I saw those gorgeous little silvery fish behind the fish counter, I knew what I had to do!

For the uninitiated, here is how you make smelts: 

The ones at my market come headless and gutted, but otherwise whole.  I buy 0.4-0.5 lbs per person, depending how hungry.  Don't buy extras for leftovers.  This is a food to be eaten fresh.

 Pat your fishies dry, coat them in flour, and shake off the excess.  Don't forget to let your toddler play with one before you coat it in flour! Gluten-free flours work as well as wheat flour for this recipe.

Heat some oil in a pan (I use a high-heat oil like peanut oil, though I'm positive the old Italians used olive oil and just dealt with the smoke) and fry them.  My pan is on fry-but-don't-burn-the-oil heat (3.5-4 on my stove), with enough oil to coat the pan.  My smelts take 3 or 4 minutes a side.  While they're cooking, don't mess with them!  They actually hold together pretty well if you let them be.  I use tongues to flip them and cast iron to cook them because of its even heat and naturally non-stick surface.

Transfer to a paper towel to soak up the extra grease.  Salt generously. 

Eat them while they're hot!  You have to pull the spine out.  All you'll be left with is a plate full of spines and tails.  Unless you're weird like me and eat the tail because it's so crunchy and delicious.  All I have left is spines.


Hub, who likes fish very much, put a moratorium on smelts because I cooked them three times in a week and he got sick of them.  He prefers sardines, which are larger and more like small bluefish with dark, oily meat.  Elsie loves to play with the raw smelts, gets all excited about eating them for dinner (like a shark!  Her favorite animal), then punts when I set a cooked one down in front of her. 

I just can't get enough.  Tuesday is my day off.  Therefore, smelts for lunch for me!  Hooray!