Sardinas Lambriadas (Fluffy Egg Battered Sardines)

In Mexican cooking there is a very commonly used egg batter used for many many things, it is fluffy yet has body. It is most well known as a coating for "Chile Rellenos" (Mexican stuffed Pasilla Chiles), and can be used for Cauliflower like in my recipe "Cauliflor Envuelta en Huevo" and also for "Calabasitas Rellenas de Queso" (cheese stuffed squash) it is used for other dishes to, that I will post in the future.

Today I am gonna show you how to use it to prepare Sardines, it is very delicious and simple, it is my favorite way to prepare fresh sardines (aside from the canned one's packed in tomato sauce I love them to make "Sardinas en Salsa Criolla" (Cuban Creole sauce)

In this recipe sardines are butterflied, salted and peppered then coated in batter and fried. If you love sardines I really suggest you try the recipe after all the ingredients used in it are stuff that can be found in ALMOST ANYBODY'S PANTRY and FRIDGE.

Main Ingredients:
-1 1/2 lbs. fresh sardines
-a little bit of salt (just enough to very lightly season the fish)
-a little bit of pepper (just enough to very lightly season the fish)
-flour to dust fish

Batter Ingredients:
-3 egg whites
-3 egg yolks
-1/2 tsp. salt
-1/2 tsp. ground black pepper
-1 tsp. garlic powder (you may use fresh garlic but the powder is better for this)

Directions
(1)Get the sardines, clean them by removing the gills, cutting belly open and removing guts, and scraping any black stuff out. Now remove head (optional to remove head but it looks prettier), butterfly, get your knife and slice spine bone on both sides, then from the top to the bottom run your knife down to remove, when you get near the tail snip of the spine with scissors.

It is fine to have spines left, sardines have very tender spines when cooked they can be consumed.

(2)Now get each fish it should look like the picture, opened up and flat, now LIGHTLY salt and pepper each fish by sprinkling LIGHTLY (I emphasize this because the batter already has salt and is seasoned)

(3)Now get a plate, put some flour on it and set aside

(4)To make batter, separate egg whites from yolks, in a large bowl beat egg whites until stiff and fluffy like meringue, beat in egg yolks, add salt, pepper, garlic powder and beat in. Now your done set aside.

(5)Make your assembly line starting with a plate of seasoned fish, a plate of flour, the batter, and then then a pan with oil enough to pan-fry heated on medium high heat, and finally a plate with paper towels to drain fried fish.

(6)In this order start, get the lightly seasoned fish, dust it with flour, pass it through egg batter holding it from the tail, and then add to the hot oil and when browned on one side flip it when browned on the other until browned on both sides, remove from oil and drain in paper towel, do this in several batches.


(7)Enjoy, serve with lime wedges, or by itself as an appetizer, it can also be eaten as a main dish, just be sure to have at least 2 sardines per person.

NOTE & WARNING:
(1)These are addicting
(2)Any leftover batter just pour into the hot oil and fry like a pan-cake, it is very tasty.
(3)The batter if it sits to long the egg whites start to separate, so when they do just beat it again and continue.