Fried Crucian Carp with Onions - Easy Pan-Fried Recipe

My favorite kind of fishing is sitting by a quiet lake with a float rod, catching small crucian carp. Small ones, specifically. As a rule, they bite eagerly, take almost any bait, and do so surprisingly often.

My mother told me that before I was born, my cousin in the village used to catch small crucian carp with a rod, and they would fry them in oil in a skillet and eat them like sunflower seeds. Maybe that's why I have such a passion for this dish.

So whenever I manage to get some fishing in, crucian carp fried with onions is almost a treat. At so-called “paid” ponds, the owners often forbid releasing small crucians, considering them a trash fish that gets in the way of raising market carp. So if you want to and don't get distracted, you can catch a whole bucket of small crucian carp.

The crucian carp (Carassius) is a fish of the carp family, probably the most common one in our waters. Being found almost everywhere makes the crucian a universal target for anglers.

And don't ask me how to catch a bucket of crucians. Friends say there have been fishing trips when, on the way home, they simply released several kilograms of small crucian carp into a river or a wild pond. And that's not counting what they gave away to neighbors, relatives and even complete strangers.

Small crucian carp fried in vegetable oil is a simple, affordable dish. The hardest part is cleaning the fish. Then a few simple spices, a coating of flour, and into the pan. The final stage is braising the fish with fried onions.