Springtime Smelting

I know spring is on its way out the door in a weeks time, but I thought I should mention this interesting spring pass time that occupies the local persons.

Smelting. Smelt. It’s a very popular pass time in the spring 'round these parts. The Magnetawan river cuts through the northern section of the Parry Sound District. It’s a wide, winding river, fat with fish, rapids and spills wide against the locks in the town of Magnetawan.

Every year there's a large fish fry and the river banks are flush with fishermen dipping their nets in the water for large clusters of those fishy treats.

If you want something to do in the Spring with a group of friends, grab some nets and head up past Dunchurch and see how many you can catch! Evening is the best time.

I was asking around and it seems that there's a pretty basic recipe for making them. A warning: this isn't your five star French cooking.

Ingredients

Garlic

Salt

Pepper

Canola Oil

Shake and Bake fish Batter

Directions:

1. Prepare batter: Shake and Bake, garlic, salt, and pepper
2. Run fish under cold water
3. Cook fish in canola oil

For something a little fancier, but a little less local, try this one on for size:

Ingredients:

cooking oil for frying (I like to use olive oil)
1 cup matzo meal
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound smelt
2 tablespoons butter
handful fresh herbs, minced
1 clove garlic
minced fresh chili pepper (I used 1 whole chili)
salt and pepper
1 lemon, halved

Directions:

1. In a large saute pan, add oil to reach 1/2 inch up the sides of the pan. Heat the oil until 350F or when you drop a few flakes of matzo meal into the oil it begins to bubble and lightly brown.

2. In a wide, shallow bowl, mix together the matzo meal, garlic powder and the salt. Have the matzo meal, the smelt, a wire rack on top of a baking sheet ready by your stove. Coat a smelt on both sides with the matzo meal then carefully slide into the hot oil to fry. Repeat with a few more smelt fish (just make sure you give the smelt enough room so that they don't touch in the oil). Fry both sides of the smelt fish for 2 minutes each side. They cook very quickly! Let the fried smelt drain its excess oil on the wire rack. Repeat with remaining batches.

3. Just before serving, heat a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the butter and when hot, add in the garlic and chilies. When garlic becomes fragrant, season with salt and pepper and squeeze in the juice of one of the lemon halves. Turn off the heat and stir in the fresh herbs. Pour this over the plated fried smelt and serve immediately with lemon wedges.



— Kelsey Ward
Second recipe: http://www.steamykitchen.com/15666-fried-smelt.html