Beer Battered Smelt with Homemade Tartar Sauce

Servings: 4

Prep Time: 60 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1 pound smelt, cleaned
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
Vegetable or canola oil for deep frying
Lemon wedges

Beer Batter

1 cup of all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons of baking powder
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
1 to 1¼ cups of light beer, plus extra

Tartar Sauce

½ cup of mayonnaise
1 shallot, minced
¼ cup of minced dill pickle
Splash of pickle juice
1 tbs. minced fresh dill
Juice of half a lemon, or to taste
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

Step 1

In a mixing bowl, whisk beer batter ingredients to combine – some lumps are OK. It should be runnier than pancake batter. Add more beer if needed. Cover and refrigerate batter for 1 hour to rest.

Step 2

In a small bowl, combine tartar sauce ingredients and refrigerate, covered, until ready to serve.

Step 3

In a saucepan (or deep fryer), heat 1½ to 2 inches of oil to 350° Fahrenheit. If beer batter has separated, give it a gentle stir.

Step 4

While oil is heating, prepare the smelt: Lightly coat smelt in all-purpose flour, shaking off excess. Then dip each fish into the beer batter, allowing excess to drip off. One by one, carefully drop coated fish into the hot oil and fry until golden brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels. Serve immediately with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.

*Watch and adjust oil temperature as needed – too low and fish will be oily, too high and the oil will burn. Fry fish in small batches, preferably serving them as soon they come out of the oil. If needed, keep fried fish warm in a 200° oven, but not for too long.