Sprats in oil

For making canned fish, I buy large smelt. I try to buy whole, undamaged fish. I thaw the smelt in the air. After thawing, I remove the head, the tip of the tail, and the innards from each fish. When removing the innards, I scrape off the black skin from the inside of the belly, which can give the finished fish an unpleasant bitterness in the canned food. This dark film is very easy to remove under a stream of cold water. I position the cut belly under the stream of water. Now, simply rubbing this skin off with my fingers, I wash away the remnants with the stream. After rinsing the cleaned smelt under running water, I place the fish on a plate to let the excess water drain off.

Now I take 2 medium-sized onions. I peel the onions, then cut them into quarters. I slice each quarter of the onion crosswise into strips. I send the onion to a pan with vegetable oil to lightly brown it.

Meanwhile, I prepare the carrot for the sauce. The sauce in the canned food will be tastier if it contains a lot of carrots, which will give the sauce a nice color and sweetness. Therefore, I take a large root vegetable. After peeling it, I rinse it under running water. Then I shred the carrot into strips.

I pour the shredded carrot into the pan with the onion. I do not fry the vegetables too much, but just sauté them lightly until soft.

When the vegetables are ready, I proceed to make the sauce. I will need homemade tomato juice, ground pepper, sugar, and salt. I also add flour to the sauce for thickness.

I thoroughly mix the tomato with the flour so that there are no flour lumps left. For this purpose, I use a whisk that is usually used to break up lumps in pancake batter.

I add salt and ground pepper to the tomato according to the recipe, and mix.

Now I lay a layer of sautéed vegetables on the bottom of the cooking pot. Next, I place the prepared smelt in a dense layer.

I cover the layer of smelt with sautéed onions and carrots. Then I add another layer of fish.

I cover the layer of smelt again with vegetables. The top layer must be vegetable. No matter how many layers we have, the top layer must definitely have vegetables. Between the layers, I place bay leaves and peppercorns.

I pour the smelt, carrots, and onions with the prepared tomato sauce. I put it on the stove. After boiling, I reduce the heat to minimum. I tightly close the lid of the cooking pot and stew the canned food for about 60 minutes. The canned food literally simmers. Sometimes I even cook a little longer, but then the canned food will be very soft.

I check the canned food for readiness. As soon as the carrots are soft enough, I turn off the heat. I carefully place the cooled canned food on a plate to not mash the soft fish, along with the stewed carrots and onions.

Making canned food takes a lot of time, but the result is pleasing.