Sprats [Nordic]

Following on from yesterday's breakfast, I still have some sprats left.

Today, Nordic.

Ingredients

Sprats. No sprats? Anchovies would be good, small sardines, small herrings or whitebait would do.

Potatoes, carrot, beetroot, onion, garlic, chilli, black pepper, sea salt, goose fat and spinach. Marjoram to cook, parsley to garnish.

Yoghurt, dill and lemon juice.

Hash

Dice up the roots, sautéing off the potatoes and carrots in your favourite paleo fat - goose fat, for me. Add the beetroot in later.

Give the skillet a good grind of black pepper, a pinch of sea salt and a sprinkle of dried marjoram. Oregano would do fine.

Continue to sauté over a medium heat until the roots are starting to soften, which might be around 10 minutes. Add in the beetroot at this point.

Add a chopped onion, sliced garlic and a couple of chillies, shredded.

Sauté on until soft, which might take another 20 minutes, or so.

Lay a generous handful of spinach per person into the skillet and let it wilt.

Meanwhile, a sauce ...

Sauce

Per person, a couple of heaped tablespoons of your favourite yoghurt and a generous amount of chopped dill. Good squeeze of lemon juice and stir together.

Use whatever yoghurt you like. Greek, regular cow, perhaps goat, sheep, even. I used a gorgeous sheep yoghurt from Dorset, here in the UK.

Now the sprats ...

Sprats

Eat them whole. Heads, tails, guts, the lot. Eat them whole.

If you're at all queasy about heads, cut them off. Actually, from there you can gut the fish by squeezing the belly up to where the head was. The guts will come out. Wash and you're done.

Otherwise, just make a small incision behind the gills and squeeze the belly up to the head to draw the guts.

Or, leave them in ... it's all good flavour!

You can pan-fry sprats or you can grill them. I prefer the grill. You say tomato, I say tomato. I'm British, and a grill for me is an overhead heat source: broiler, salamander.

Pan frying can be quite violent, leaving your sprats broken up and the fats over-cooked. Grill 'em. Lay your sprats out on a piece of kitchen foil and place under the grill on high. Two or three minutes each side is perfect.

Timing is less important than how they look - the skins should be just bubbling. Watch the fish, not the clock.

Serve

Fold the wilted spinach through the hash and plate up.

Sauce over, then the sprats. More black pepper, perhaps some more sea salt, certainly some flat leaf parsley to garnish.

I popped a couple of figs alongside ... a boiled egg would be equally good.

Sprats over beetroot hash with yoghurt dill sauce.