Salt and Pepper Spicy Smelt

Salt and Pepper Spicy Smelt or should I call Spicy Dilis but a little bigger and thicker. I don't know the Filipino or Tagalog name of this fish but I know this is one tasty little fish and nutty. What I remember back home we uses this fish a lot in making Kinilaw.




Ingredients

• 2 lbs. smelt, cleaned
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup cornstarch
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 stem green onion, chopped
• 1 jalopeno pepper, sliced thin
• 1 to 2 cups cooking oil

Instructions

1. Combine flour, cornstarch, salt and ground pepper.
2. Coat fish with flour mixture.
3. In a pan, heat cooking oil.
4. Shake off excess flour mixture and fry fish in batches, turning frequently until it turns golden brown.
5. Remove fish from heat and drain excess cooking oil.
6. Using a clean pan, heat a tablespoon of cooking oil.
7. Saute garlic until it turns golden brown. Add slices of jalopeno peppers and green onions.
8. Toss fried smelt fish with the garlic pepper mixture. Mix well.
9. Remove from the pan, arrange in a serving plate and serve. Enjoy!