Crispy Fried Jeprox is a simple dried fish dish similar to daing.This is a very simple and straightforward recipe that will remind you on how to cook daing or salted dried fish (and we are using Jeprox for this recipe).
What do you think about the name of this dried fish? If you will ask me, I think that naming a type of dried fish as “Jeprox” is funny sounding. An old Pinoy Rock song is the first thing that come into my mind when I see this fish. However (and although it sounds funny), the satisfaction that I get when eating crispy fried jeprox is no joke at all. I enjoy having this for breakfast with a bowl of super spicy vinegar and sinangag.
So what is the difference between Jeprox with Daing? You see, I had the same question too because they all look the same at first glance. Although you will notice that jeprox is lighter and thinner compared to regular salted dried fish. From what I gathered, Jeprox is made from a variety of fish called Smelt; it is a species of fish that can commonly be found in North America.
Having said that, I am now wondering if there is also Jeprox in the Philippines? Don’t get me wrong, I know that most of you will say that there are lots of Jeprox out there almost anywhere — but I’m asking about the fish though. I heard that there is a type of dried fish with the same name in Pangasinan, but I have not tried it yet. It may or may not be using the same kind of fish. since you know better than I do, a quick comment with your thoughts will help.
Try this Crispy Dried Jeproc Recipe. Enjoy!
Crispy Fried Jeprox
Ingredients
- 3 ounces packaged dried jeprox
- 4 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1/2 cup spicy vinegar
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a frying pan
- Once the oil heats-up add around 3 pieces of dried jeprox and fry each side until the color turns golden brown and the fish starts to curl. Make sure that the oil is not too hot when you put the fish in. This will prevent it from getting burnt quickly and will avoid a bitter aftertaste. Perform this step until all the fish are consumed.
- Using a spoon, scoop some hot oil from the pan and pour-it over the fish so that the opposite side will get cooked and crispy. Turning the fish over will not cook the fish equally since it is already curly.
- Remove the fried jeprox from the hot pan. Place in a plate lined with paper towels.
- Transfer to a serving plate. Serve with rice and spicy vinegar.
- Share and enjoy!
Nutrition
Sam Cadiente says
I have never seen smelt that big and I live not far away from the great lakes where they abound. They are not any bigger that your fingers and splitting them in half and drying them will probably be as large as a bamboo leaf, not those big bamboos from the PH but those pigmy bamboos from Japan. Try deep fried fresh smelts, they are good.
Tony says
We called that ‘daing na dalag-baybay’ in La Union Philippines. We cooked that daing for breakfast. You can get it as daing or half dried daing which has better taste for me. Press flat while frying so it won’t curl.