Smoked herring with onion cream was my grandmother’s favourite way of serving herring.
The apples and onions in whipped heavy cream provide an excellent counterpoint to the smoky saltiness of the fish.
Serve with fresh buttered bread, new potatoes and sliced ripe tomatoes.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons heavy (or whipping) cream
3 tablespoons peeled, cored, and finely diced apple
1½ tablespoons finely minced onion
2 tablespoons finely minced fresh parsley
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 smoked herring or kipper fillets
1 small onion, sliced into thin rings
- Whisk the cream in a bowl until it just starts to thicken. Add the apple and minced onion, 1 tablespoon of the parsley, and the lemon juice. Mix well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Roll up the herring or kipper fillets and place on individual plates. Serve with a dollop of apple-onion cream and decorate with onion rings and the remaining 1 tablespoon parsley.
Serves 4
Herring: A taste of history
The lowly herring, considered a poor cousin of the aristocratic turbot, the delicate sole, and even the mundane cod, has in its day been the making and unmaking of several empires.
Two facts made the herring of critical importance in European history. One is that until fairly recently herring was the most abundant seafood in the world, and it has fed mankind since prehistoric times. Herring bones have been found in Scandinavian excavations that date back to 3000 B.C.
Secondly, when a method for preserving fresh herring by layering them with salt in airtight barrels was discovered early in the 14th century, it became possible to transport large quantities of the fish to customers far away from the sea coast.
This enabled nations that maintained large herring fleets to profit and thrive. In prosperous times, herring, plentiful and cheap, was the food of the poor; in times of famine, herring could sustain the population at large when little else was available.
In Belgium, as in other European countries, the herring played an important role for centuries. Many generations of Belgians living along the coast of the North Sea were saved from famine by the abundance of herring caught by their fishing fleets.
Today the once ubiquitous herring is nowhere near as plentiful in our waters as it was in the past. And because of overfishing and other ecological problems, it appears on the list of species that need to be protected to not disappear completely.
Ruth's favourite recipe of the day: Belgian born international chef Ruth Van Waerebeek combines a love of travel, adventure and the culinary arts in her best selling cookbook 'The taste of Belgium'. She draws inspiration from the many tested recipes carried through generations of family home cooks. Ruth picks one of her favourite recipes for The Brussels Times every day.
