Lightly salted sprat

Spicy lightly salted smelt - just the right amount of salt, spicy, finger-licking good!

This little fish is unjustly ignored by many, but it is very tasty. Especially with potatoes — you'll lick your fingers!
Smelt is very easy to salt using this recipe, as they say, "without unnecessary hassle." And it turns out very tasty. Be sure to try it! On bread with butter… m-m-m! Smelt might pleasantly surprise you too...

Smelt (frozen, whole) — 1 kg
Salt — 1 tbsp without a heap
Sugar — 1/3 tbsp.
Spices — coriander 1 tsp., cloves 2 pcs., black peppercorns 15 pcs. (adjust to your taste)
Thaw the smelt (better just in the air or in the refrigerator, not in the microwave).
You can salt it whole, just tear off the heads and remove the insides, or you can also clean it into fillets right away.
I chose the second option — the fish was very tender and it was inconvenient to fillet.

From 1 kg of frozen fish, I got 750 g thawed with heads and insides removed.
Crush the spices in a mortar or (as I did) — just mash them with a ladle.
I was too lazy to get the mortar, and the seeds broke easily and to the right size anyway.
Sprinkle the fish with spices.
With salt.
With sugar.
Mix, pack — and put it in the refrigerator for a day.
I already started tasting it after a night (I made it in the evening) — very tasty.
It’s easier to make fillets from already salted fish — it firms up and easily separates from the bones and skin.
But you can serve it like this too.
It’s a very tasty combination with eggs.
You can add it to salads.
And if you can't eat the whole portion right away, you can store it in the freezer.
I make fillets and, when I need them, I thaw a little.
It turns out convenient — you dirty your hands once and stretch the pleasure for a long time.