At the Japanese grocery store with M, I pointed inquisitively to a container in the seafood freezer that contained two neat overlapping rows of little grey fish, mouths agape and large eyes seemingly staring right back at their observer.
M explained that these were shishamo, or more precisely, komochi shishamo (子持ちシシャモ — shishamo “with child”), female fish caught while their bellies were filled with eggs, delicious grilled with a drizzle of soy sauce.
I love trying out foods that stand out as oddities in my gastronomic experience. And to someone who grew up eating fish that came from the supermarket already filleted and stripped bare of any visible reminders of its former existence as a living sea creature, even eating salmon skin had once been a novel discovery (I now shake my head at the thought of discarding such a precious — not to mention tasty — source of nutrients). And now I was being told that I could put the whole fish in my mouth, tail, fins, eggs and even those beady eyes. I was delighted and insisted we buy a pack and make it together.
Shishamo (シシャモ, spirinchus lanceolatus), or Japanese capelin, is a type of fish belonging to the smelt family. Originally, they were caught in early-November, when the pregnant female fish were swimming up the Kushiro river in south-Eastern Hokkaido. Nowadays, much of the shishamo consumed in Japan is imported.
Poor fishies. They look terrorized.
I don’t have much in terms of grilling equipment, but I figured that we could still accomplish a satisfying crispiness by frying our little fishies. Shishamo are very delicate, and I was afraid of them sticking to my stainless steel pan, so I added a sheet of parchment paper for good measure. I cut up some ginger and scallions and served the shishamo over shiso leaves, with my grapefruit ponzu sauce (Recipe here).
Crispy and tasty. Even the eyes.
Joëlle
A quick and tasty appetizer, these crispy fried fish can be popped into the mouth whole.
5 minPrep Time
6 minCook Time
11 minTotal Time
Save Recipe
Ingredients
- Shishamo, defrosted
- Avocado oil spray
- Soy sauce or Ponzu ((Recipe here)
- Ginger, grated or julienned (optional)
- Shiso leaves (optional)
Instructions
- Cut out a piece of parchment paper and put it at the bottom of your frying pan.
- Heat the pan over medium heat. Spray the surface of the parchment paper with the avocado oil and add shishamo side by side, working in batches if necessary.
- Cook the shishamo, turning them over carefully on occasion, until they are cooked and crispy, about 6 minutes.
- Serve as an appetizer, with ponzu (Recipe here) or soy sauce, and maybe some ginger and scallions, or a decorative shiso leaf. いただきます！
