Boquerones Fritos
Whole fresh anchovies dusted with flour and fried for 2 minutes until crisp, served with lemon, a classic of the Andalusian coast.
Photograph credit: Hamsi tava, roka, lemon and red onions (image of Hamsi tava on Wikidata Q19979570) by E4024 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Making Boquerones Fritos Ahead
Best fresh.
Boquerones Fritos: The Method
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Rinse the anchovies, drain and pat completely dry.
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Mix the flour, semolina and half the salt. Toss the fish in it and shake off the excess in a sieve.
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Heat the oil to 190°C / 375°F. Fry in 4 small batches for 2 minutes each until golden and crisp.
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Drain on kitchen paper, sprinkle with the remaining salt and serve with the lemon.
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Worth Knowing
- Dry the fish thoroughly before dusting.
- Fry in small batches in very hot oil.
- Eat as soon as they come out.
Behind the Recipe
Fry them in small handfuls and in very hot oil. That is the short instruction for boquerones fritos, the little crisp anchovies of the Andalusian coast, which are sold in paper cones from beach bars and eaten whole, bones and all.
Buy the freshest anchovies you can, with bright eyes and shiny skins. Rinse them in cold water, drain them well and pat them completely dry. Dust them in a mix of plain flour and fine semolina if you can find it, and shake off the excess in a sieve. The coating should be almost invisible, a dry veil and not a batter.
Heat the oil to 190°C / 375°F, and fry in small batches for 2 minutes until golden and crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with salt at once. Eat them hot, with lemon wedges, and with a cold beer or a glass of fino sherry. They go soft within minutes, so fry only what you can eat and serve the next batch when it is ready.
Good Alongside
Lemon wedges · Cold beer · Dry sherry · Bread
The Numbers per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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