Whitebait fritters

After my earlier post about mock white bait, I thought I'd try making the real thing. Today our local supermarket had, for the first time as far as I've noticed, fresh whitebait. There was about 80 g in a polystyrene tray, for just under $8—so that's $100 a kilogram for these little delicacies. The 80 g converted into enough mixture to make 5 whitebait fritter (pattie) sandwiches, and I can buy one of those pre-made from the Otago Farmer's Market for $5, so I've converted $8 of whitebait into $25 worth of sandwiches—now that doesn't sound so bad does it?!

Whitebait fritters

80–100 g fresh whitebait
2 large eggs
125 mL milk
1 tbs plain flour (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

2 tbs butter or oil for frying

Buttered white bread
Wedges of lemon
Additional salt to serve

Heat the butter/oil in a heavy frying pan. Rinse and drain the whitebait in a sieve or colander. Whisk the eggs with the milk, flour and seasoning. If the batter is lumpy, strain it before you add the whitebait. Add the whitebait to the batter and mix gently. Fry spoonfuls of the mix until golden on one side, then flip and fry the other side—it only takes a short time. Serve on the buttered bread with a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous sprinkle of salt.