I made this recipe last year, using frozen, somewhat larger sardines from Portugal http://cookinginsens.com/2012/04/01/deep-fried-sardines/. The ones I made today are tiny and straight out of the ocean from Fresh Paradise http://www.frischeparadies.eu/stores/stuttgart.html. I think it made a difference.
Because of their size, I didn’t bother to head or gut them but just rinsed and fried them up brown and crispy. Of course, the choice is yours.
I am proud to say that the herbs and chillies came from my garden pots 🙂
Spicy Deep Fried Sardines
1 1/2 lb tiny, fresh sardines
1 cup flour
1/2 cup bread crumbs
Peanut oil
2 red chillies, sliced
2 cloves garlic, slivered
2 tbsp butter
3 handfuls of mixed fresh herbs (parsley, thyme, cilantro, dill, etc)
Dredge the sardines in a mixture of the flour and bread crumbs, then fry in the peanut oil until crispy and brown. Drain on paper towels.
Saute the garlic and chillies in the butter until aromatic, remove from the flame, add the herbs and pour over the sardines.
Wine suggestion: Cold Chablis
What nice little sardines – they are mostly quite big here. Yours look excellent 😉
Thank you Dog. I think I like the smaller ones best for deep frying. Grilling, of course, is another issue.
Wow, amazing, they look similar to whitebait or sprats that I love, I could eat a whole plate of those with a cold beer 🙂
Cheers
Marcus
I think whitebait must be the same as fresh water smelts. We used to eat platters of those when we were kids. Without the beer.
Gorgeous and here they rarely bother to clean and gut even the bigger ones – the doner does that as he goes along! Lovely herbs 🙂
Thank you Chica.
That sounds excellent. Now that we have some reasonable weather, I’m looking forward to eating sardines cooked on the grill in the garden, but these little fried guys sound sensational.
Grill in the garden sounds good.
hum !… ça me rappelle le sud de la France !
Oui, aussi Espagne et Portugal.
😉
Like the others, I’ve only tried whitebait but they’re smaller. Thanks for posting this though, I’d forgotten about it! I love the mix of herbs you’ve used it must have been packed with flavour.
I guess whitebait are not like smelts because smelts are about this size. I do like the herb chillie mix!
I effing love your cooking/eating style. That’s all.
Thank you, you ole flatterer you!
:). I’m a fan of white bait or school prawns (easily accessible out here) done the same way and served with aioli or something similar. Great beer food!
“School prawns”. I love the sound of that.
Sardines are some of my favorites – these look delicious!
Thank you Sunny.
We love sardines in our house! I wish so bad we could get ahold of some fresh ones. We get so many fresh fish here in the Pacific Northwest, but not sardines.
Don’t despair! You are in a perfect place for fresh fish, I envy you! You’ll just have to go to Spain, Portugal or France for your sardines 🙂
One of my favourite foods….fan-tas-tic!
Thank you Keith.
I can eat these all day, dipped in a little aioli!
Excellent idea Frugal!
we used to called this as sarden goreng in Indonesia…
nothing better that dipped in sambal( indonesian chilly sauce)
Another great dipping idea Dedy!
A plate of these would make me so happy! Great looking sardines!
Thank you Tessa.
I must do more fish dishes. Fish is very popular here – from tiny ones up to very large carp. I’m pleased to see that you used garlic and chillies 🙂
I’d love to see Georgian fish dishes! Of course I used garlic and chillies, what do you expect? 😀
The heads must be so crispy, Yum!
Yes Raymund they were and that’s what I like about fried little fish.
Your sardines look so fantastic! We get a similar dish at a local dim sum restaurant… I can’t bring myself to eat the fish heads (but the boyfriend is quite happy to eat the pieces I leave behind).
Thank you Amber. Just so nothing goes to waste 🙂
Those look amazing!
Thank you Greg.
What a great idea for my dinner on Thursday – have company coming. If the weather holds we’ll be outside and cookign sardines outside is definitely better than in the kitchen!!
Good luck with your dinner!
Wow! Amazing recipe. I am feeling hungry just looking at the recipe. Thanks for sharing, I am definitely going to try this one… 🙂
Thank you Sylvia. Let me know how it turns out for you.
sure.. 🙂
What a great dish! They look like something out of my childhood 🙂
Your childhood must have been charmed 🙂
Oh it was! I was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Its a port city on a Black sea. Summertime my mom and aunt would make something similar to your sardines, a large garden fresh salad or a cauliflour and pea soup, and it was heaven 🙂
Charmed, indeed!
Oh, how I miss the sardines in Europe. They are impossible to find in the U.S. Looks fabulous!