CookEat Recipe
Smelts Africaine
Whole smelts baked with tomato juice, sweet red pepper and Dijon mustard, finished in their own lightly thickened sauce.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Heat the oven to 400°F. Wipe twelve good-sized fresh whole rainbow smelts, professionally cleaned with their heads, tails and backbones retained. Put them in an ovenproof saute pan with half an ounce of butter, one and a half gills of pure tomato juice, two sweet red peppers cut into small squares, half a teaspoon of smooth Dijon mustard and one teaspoon of salt.
Step 2
Cover the fish with lightly buttered oven-suitable baking paper. Bake for about twenty minutes, starting to check earlier and removing the fish when the thickest flesh reaches 70°C away from the bone and is opaque and flakes readily. Lift the smelts with a skimmer onto a hot serving dish, retaining all their sauce and pepper pieces in the pan.
Step 3
Knead one teaspoon of butter with one teaspoon of flour on a saucer. Gradually mix this into the retained sauce, stirring gently as it is added. Bring to a boil and boil for two minutes.
Step 4
Pour all the finished sauce and pepper pieces over the smelts and serve promptly.
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