Small fry

As part of the Try New Things Project, I’ve been buying and cooking more little fish.

The Clupeidae family includes some of my favorite fish to eat — herring and sardines, namely. These sardines I cooked last night following this very, very simple and delicious recipe (mine was in The Essential New York Times Cookbook). You want to be sure to have some bread on hand to mop up the garlicky, spicy oil too.

A couple of weeks ago, I fried up some smelt, dreaming of the delicious, fried roe-filled ones I had at dim sum in LA something like six years ago. These were sadly eggless and also undersalted, which I will remedy next time, but so little effort was involved that I’m sure there will be many next times.

And speaking of roe, man, I cannot wait to get my hands on some shad and weakfish roe at the fishmonger (’tis the season!).