Now then, this has been a retro classic for quite some time. I’ve even seen it on the menu of The Yorkshire Pudding a restaurant in Central Hong Kong giving expats the taste of home.  I’m talking of course about whitebait.

Normally whitebait comes deep fried in a basket with a large slice of lemon, nothing wrong with that at all1 However, when making it at home, some people don’t have a deep fat fryer (me for one, mine went bang a couple of years ago) and some including myself don’t fancy filling a wok up with oil.

• 500g Whitebait
• 1 tbsp Plain Flour
• 2 tbsp Mayonnaise
• 100g Samphire
• 1 Lemon cut into wedges

So I’ve tried a new tack (well for me anyway) with this one. As usual I coated my whitebait in flour and heated my wok.  Instead of filling it with oil and frying batches, I drizzled a little oil into it and essentially stir fired the fish.

Once it had begun to colour slightly I transferred the fish on a baking tray and put it into a hot oven for about 10 minutes to ensure the fish were crispy. For the accompaniments I kept it simple, just some steamed samphire, some mayonnaise for dipping and some lemon to squeeze onto the fish.  That is really about it to be honest.  If you give it a try I hope you like it as much as I did!

PG