This is the most common way of serving fish in
Greece. Small fish, especially red mullet, bogue, sardines etc.
are fried whole. All whole fish are gutted before frying, except
the tiny smelts or marides. The scales of red mullet and larger
fish would be removed.
The rules for frying are simple. Whole fish should be dried
carefully after cleaning and scaling, and then rolled lightly in
plain flour. They should then be fried as quickly as possible in
hot oil in a heavy pan, with enough oil to almost cover them.
They should only be turned once. The hot oil solidifies the
flour coating and cooks the flesh without actually coming into
contact with it. The advantage of using olive oil for frying is
that it can be heated to quite a high temperature without
burning.
