'Tis the season

Lots of people get excited about whitebait season, but I have to admit I'm not one of them. Any whitebait lovers not prepared to traipse out to a river somewhere and catch their own have got to buy it instead - and with whitebait numbers declining, the price increases every year. While I don't dislike whitebait, I have no great liking for it either, so I'm not prepared to pay through the nose for it.

Still, whitebait fritters (p119) are in the Edmonds book, which means they are also on the menu. I got myself a small pottle, enough to make a couple of fritters for myself. Interestingly, the recipe also suggests thin strips of firm white fish as a possible whitebait substitute. So if you're budget-challenged but still love a whitebait fritter, give that a go.

I mixed up the batter while the whitebait was draining: a simple mixture of flour, baking powder, salt, egg and milk. With the addition of the whitebait, the batter was ready to go. I'd heated some oil in a frying pan, and dropped spoonfuls of the whitebait mixture into the pan, where they cooked through in a couple of minutes.

I allowed the fritters to drain on a paper towel for a few minutes before serving them up with a wedge or two of lemon. It had probably taken me about ten minutes to get the whitebait from pottle to plate: fast food at home!

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the fritters. It's been years since I had one, and I hadn't expected to think much of it at all. The thing is, I think I enjoyed the nice crisp batter more than I enjoyed the whitebait itself. In fact, I'm finding it hard to recall what the whitebait even tasted like.

Perhaps it's a sad waste of whitebait to feed it to someone like me, who doesn't appreciate it properly. I think it's best left to those who really love the stuff. Because really, I'd probably be just as happy with the 'mock' version mentioned above.