Recipe - Scapice - Marinated Anchovies

Stephen Ceideburg
1 kg Anchovies
3 tablespoon Flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup White wine
3 Cloves garlic, Crushed
2 Birdseye chillies
3 tablespoon Mint

Just about every cuisine of Europe has a recipe for oily fish steeped in
vinegar or lemon and served cold. In Spain it is escabeche. The English
have soused herrings. In southern Italy, they make scapice.

Remove the heads and gut 1 kg fresh anchovies. Wash them and set aside on
kitchen paper to dry.

When they are dry, heat oil for deepfrying. Put 3 table spoons plain
flour in a paper or plastic bag and add salt and pepper. In batches, put
the anchovies into the bag and shake until they are coated with seasoned
flour. Shake off excess flour, then deepfry. Drain the cooked anchovies
and lay them in a large shallow pan.

In a saucepan heat a cup of white wine vinegar with 3 cloves of garlic
crushed, 2 birdseye chillies halved lengthways and 3 tablespoons mint,
finely chopped. When the mixture comes to the boil, spoon it over the fish.
Cover the dish and refrigerate for at least 24 hours, turning the fish
midway.

Serve as an antipasto with crusty bread.

Posted by Stephen Ceideburg

From an article by Meryl Constance in The Sydney Morning Herald, 4/20/93.
Courtesy Mark Herron.

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini