Capelin is a very tasty fish. In addition, it contains a large amount of proteins, which are the basis for the restoration of our body. The easiest way to cook delicious capelin is to simmer it in a frying pan with onions. You will learn how to do this from this recipe, which is illustrated with step-by-step photos taken during the cooking process.
How to cook capelin with onions in a frying pan
Before I started cooking, I bought 1 kilogram of frozen fish. The most important point in preparing delicious capelin is its correct choice. The fish should not be frozen, shiny and without yellowness on the belly. To be honest, it’s rare to find good fish in stores. However, my cat is very happy about this fact, and he gets the unsuccessfully purchased capelin. 😉
After the fish is slightly defrosted, you will need to clean it. To do this, we cut off the head, rip open the abdomen, and clean out the insides. There is no need to cut off the fins. We rinse the carcasses under cool water.
Now let's take care of the onions. Take one large juicy onion and cut it into wheels.
Grease a frying pan with vegetable oil and spread the cleaned capelin on it in a thick layer. If the fish does not fit, then you can lay it in 2 layers.
Place onion rings on top and salt the dish. You can, if desired, place a bay leaf on top and sprinkle with ground black pepper.
Add 50 milliliters of water to the frying pan and simmer the fish under a closed lid for 10-15 minutes over medium heat. It is important that there is no strong boiling under the lid, otherwise the capelin will fall apart.
Place the finished dish on portion plates and garnish with stewed onions.
So, very simply, you can prepare delicious stewed capelin with onions. It’s just a pity that it takes much more time to clean these small fish than to cook and eat them. 😉
This dish can be described as follows: fast, simple, inexpensive, tasty and healthy. Many people love capelin, especially fried, but frying small fish usually requires quite a lot of oil. Capelin stewed with onions in a frying pan is an excellent replacement for fried fish. It turns out no less tasty, but much less caloric.
Doctors strongly recommend eating small fish (capelin, sprat and sprat) more often. And you may be surprised, but they recommend consuming it entirely. Its seeds and tails contain much more calcium and phosphorus than cheese. And these microelements are very, very useful for older people and women of any age. They strengthen bones and prevent the development of osteoporosis. So don’t deny yourself the pleasure of eating small fish :).
I will tell you in detail how to stew capelin in a frying pan with onions, and even novice cooks will not have any problems with the preparation.
How to cook capelin in a frying pan with onions
Thaw half a kilogram of frozen capelin and wash it. Before stewing capelin and onions in a frying pan, place the fish in a colander and let the water drain well. Salt.
Pour a tablespoon of vegetable oil into a frying pan (preferably with a non-stick coating or a good cast iron one) and then carefully distribute it over the frying pan.
Place the fish in the frying pan, belly up, quite tightly to each other. This amount of fish fit into a frying pan with a diameter of 24 cm.
Cut the onion into half rings and sprinkle the onion on top of the fish.
Season everything on top of the onion with black pepper. If you like the smell of bay leaves in fish dishes, place 1-2 leaves on top.
Cover the pan with a lid and place on the stove over medium heat. The fish and onions will release a lot of liquid at first. Keep it on the fire for 10-15 minutes until all the liquid has gone. During this time, the capelin and onions will be stewed well in a frying pan with some water. It is better to have a glass lid on the frying pan to control the process and prevent the fish from burning. Turn off the burner and leave the dish to simmer a little under the lid and cool slightly.
A delicious stew of capelin with onions in a frying pan is ready, and it tastes best not hot, but warm or even cold. Bon appetit!
We will devote this article to various recipes on how to cook capelin. The methods for preparing this fish are quite varied, and the simplest of them will not take much of your time. In addition, the process of preparing fish for cooking is elementary; there is no need to gut it, but simply rinse it thoroughly under running (cool) water and let the water drain.
Capelin: recipes
Fried
Since capelin is a small fish, it fries very quickly, so every housewife should know how to fry capelin.
Ingredients:
- capelin
- Pepper
- Vegetable oil
We will fry the fish in batter to obtain a nice golden brown crust. To prepare the batter, take a couple of eggs and beat them with salt and pepper. Fry the capelin: dip each fish in batter, then in flour and place in a frying pan. Fry the fish on each side for 1-3 minutes, over medium heat, until golden brown. Serve on a platter decorated with herbs.
To speed up the cooking process, you can immediately immerse the entire fish in batter and avoid using flour. Or vice versa, do not use batter, but fry, dipping only in flour.
Stewed
Another option for cooking capelin in a frying pan is to simmer it.
Ingredients:
- capelin
- Black pepper (peas)
- Bay leaf
- Lemon
- Vegetable oil
To prepare stewed capelin you will need a deep frying pan. Grease the frying pan with oil and lay out one layer of prepared capelin, sprinkle salt and pepper on top and place onion cut into rings and several bay leaves on top of the fish. Then again lay out a layer of fish, and again add salt and pepper, lay out the onion and bay leaf. If the pan and the amount of fish allow, add another layer of fish and spices.
Then we take water, mix it with lemon juice, and pour this mixture over the fish so that it covers all layers of the fish. Cook over low heat, the simmering process will take 15-20 minutes after the water boils.
Baked
Now let's talk about how to cook capelin in the oven. To prepare baked capelin we will need:
- capelin
- Mayonnaise
- Black pepper
- Greenery
- Butter
- Crackers
Preparation: option 1 (simple)
Before placing the washed fish in a baking dish, it must be placed in a bowl, pepper and salt, and seasoned with mayonnaise. Leave it to stand for 10-15 minutes.
While the fish is marinating, the baking dish (or baking sheet) must be greased with oil and sprinkled with breadcrumbs. Then we put the fish in the mold so that it lies closely together (belly down). Grease the resulting workpiece with mayonnaise on top and place in a preheated oven (190-200°), bake for 20-25 minutes.
Before serving the dish, sprinkle it with chopped herbs.
Preparation: option 2
Now for a more labor-intensive option, we need additional ingredients:
This option is labor-intensive because we will only use capelin fillets. To do this, we separate the head, gut the fish, and separate the fillet from the bones. If capelin is caught with caviar, then use it in cooking as well.
Grease the baking dish with oil, in this version we do not add crackers, but immediately lay out the capelin in one layer, add salt and pepper, lay out the onion, cut into rings, then another layer of fish. We spread the grated cheese in the next layer, and pour mayonnaise on top, after which we send it to the oven (preheated) to bake at a temperature of 190-200° for 20-25 minutes.
You can also use mushrooms in this recipe, the layer of mushrooms should be between the fish layers, the mushrooms must first be fried until half cooked.
Capelin in tomato sauce
Ingredients:
- capelin
- Onion and garlic
- Tomato paste (you can use tomato juice)
- Vegetable oil
- Spices (to taste)
We will cook in a frying pan, to do this, pour a little oil into it and lay out the prepared capelin, sprinkle with onions, cut into rings, chopped garlic and finally pour in tomato paste diluted with water (not too liquid). Place the frying pan on low heat and simmer. After the mixture boils, add spices and simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Capelin prepared in this way goes well with boiled potatoes.
Capelin in milk
One of the options for preparing delicious capelin is to cook it in milk. The fish will be tender and tasty.
Ingredients:
- capelin
- Milk or cream
- Black peppercorns
- Butter
Preparation: grease a deep frying pan with butter and place capelin in it, alternating a layer of fish and a layer of spices and onions. Then pour milk over the fish and put on low heat. Keep an eye on the dish so that the milk does not run away; after boiling, simmer for another 10-15 minutes. Serve as a separate dish with the resulting broth.
If you are willing to spend more time on cooking, then before stewing the fish in milk, you can lightly fry it in flour until a crust forms, but the dish turns out great even without this.
Capelin with vegetables
To prepare capelin with vegetables, it must first be cut, that is, we only need fish fillets.
Ingredients:
- Capelin fillet
- Tomatoes
- Carrot
- Pepper and other spices (to taste)
- Vegetable oil
Preparation:
- We peel the tomatoes, to do this we lower them into boiling water for 10-15 seconds, then cool and easily remove the skin. Now the tomatoes should be chopped.
- Three carrots on a medium grater, finely chop the onion.
- Simmer the tomatoes, after greasing the pan with vegetable oil, for 10 minutes.
- Add chopped onions and carrots to the tomatoes, simmer for another 8-10 minutes, then add capelin fillet, salt, add spices, and continue to simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes.
If you prefer fried onions, then first fry them with carrots and add them to the tomatoes along with the fillet. In addition, you can expand the list of vegetables used.
Now you know what can be prepared from capelin, try different recipes, add something of your own to them, and you will always have a delicious fish dish on your table.
Capelin stewed with onions and sour cream is a very easy to prepare dish. Perfect for dinner. It cooks very quickly and is very tasty. What else do you need for a light dinner?
We will need:
- Fresh frozen capelin - 800 g
- onions - 1-2 pcs
- sour cream 150 g
- salt pepper
- vegetable oil - 50 ml
- bay leaf - 2 pcs
How to cook capelin with onions and sour cream:
Thaw the capelin and rinse well in running water. Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and place the fish in it tightly together. Fry until all the moisture has evaporated. Do not turn the fish over or move it!
Peel the onion and cut into half rings.
Add salt, pepper, dry or fresh dill to the sour cream. Mix well and dilute with 100 ml of water.
Place chopped onions on the fish and pour diluted sour cream. Don't move the fish. After pouring sour cream over the fish, you need to let the fish move away from the bottom. To do this, simply swirl the pan. This way the fish will float to the surface and will not fry to the bottom of the pan. There is no need to move the fish any more, otherwise it will fall apart. Boil. Close the lid and turn off the stove or reduce the heat to low for another 5 minutes.
Serve capelin stewed in sour cream hot on its own or with your favorite side dish.
Bon appetit!
Experienced housewives can prepare a real royal dish from simple ingredients. Don't believe me? See for yourself: meet capelin stewed with onions in a frying pan. And although this fish is not classified as a delicacy, with the right approach it will turn out to be a dish that even the most capricious gourmet will appreciate.
Learning to cut capelin
Note to housewives! Capelin can be cooked and eaten whole. The fact is that the tails and bones of this fish contain a huge amount of calcium and phosphorus. As a result, you will get not only a tasty, but also an incredibly healthy dish.
If you still decide to cut capelin, follow the following algorithm of actions:
- First of all, cut the head of the fish from the back to approximately 2/3 of the thickness.
- Secure the capelin head with a knife, and with your other hand separate the carcass. As a result of these simple actions, we will separate the head from the innards that we do not need, and the caviar will remain in the fish.
- At the end we cut off the tail.
- Under no circumstances should you cook capelin that has been subjected to secondary freezing, as the fish will have a very strong, unpleasant odor.
- Thaw the fish at room temperature. You cannot soak capelin in water, otherwise its taste will be lost.
- In order for the stewed capelin to be aromatic, it must first be marinated. This is easy to do: prepare a marinade mixture from freshly squeezed lemon juice and spices and soak the fish in it for half an hour.
- Another option for removing the smell from capelin is to add fresh herbs to the dish before serving.
Advice! Serve capelin with boiled potatoes and vegetables. But this fish does not taste well with cereals and pasta.
A simple but incredibly tasty dish
Capelin stewed with onions in a frying pan in sour cream turns out incredibly aromatic and tasty. Perhaps, you can hardly find anything simpler than this fish dish. Minimum products and time, maximum gastronomic pleasure!
Compound:
- 0.8 kg frozen capelin;
- bulb;
- 150-200 ml sour cream;
- salt;
- dried dill;
- 100 ml purified water;
- ground black pepper.
Attention! Instead of dried dill, you can add chopped fresh herbs, and then the dish will be filled with an unsurpassed aroma.
Preparation:
Preparing this dish will take you no more than half an hour. And all your household members will be satisfied with the result. Tomato paste can be replaced with fresh tomatoes, after peeling them and chopping them into cubes.
Compound:
- 0.6 kg capelin;
- bulb;
- carrot;
- 200 g tomato sauce;
- salt;
- ground black pepper;
- refined sunflower oil;
- blend of seasonings for fish.
Preparation:
Delicate fish with creamy notes
Now let’s figure out how to stew capelin in milk. It can be replaced with not too heavy cream. The fish will turn out so tender and tasty that it will be impossible to tear yourself away from it.
Compound:
- 0.5 kg capelin;
- 1 tbsp. milk;
- butter;
- bulb;
- black peppercorns;
- salt;
- blend of spices.
Preparation:
Attention! If time permits, first fry the fish in flour until a golden crust forms.