HERRING

I have been planning to focus on Herring for quite a long time: The season for fresh herring is just about to begin and we will see them in the markets for a month or two. March issue, then would been a good match for this “small but yet important” fish and also a chance for all of us to try herring once more in our diets.

So I dived into the world of herring in February just with the urge of finding a local way to prepare it. It was a challenge I should admit. It is hard to write and talk about herring not because it is not tasty or healthy but it is far from the kind of fish that we are used to eating, preparing and serving on our tables.

Herring has been a staple food for millenniums. It is an oily fish which can be found in the cold waters of North Pacific, North Atlantic and Baltic Sea.  There are numerous ways to serve herring and a lot of regional touches but it is commonly consumed in Continental Europe. It can be eaten raw, pickled, smoked, fermented and with other curing techniques. Especially pickled herring is considered as delicacy in Europe and is an important ingredient in Baltic, Nordic, German, Dutch, Polish and Jewish cuisines.

The more I read and searched about herring the more interesting it became:

First of all it turned out to be that it is not hard to find a way to cook and serve fresh herring to please our “spoilt-with-thousand-cuisines” taste buds. We don’t have local herring recipes around a lot but its richness and deep buttery taste just makes it a good match for some of the local recipes.

Secondly, it is not a fish that we are unfamiliar of: First Nations have fished herring for food throughout their history in BC. Today, herring are fished more for their roe. Queen Charlotte Islands, Prince Rupert, Central Coast, Strait of Georgia and the West Coast Vancouver Island are the major herring stock in the province.

So why has herring always been in the shadow, better to say out of sight, in our local cuisine? The answer is in fact, what makes this Season’s Favorite a challenging subject.

Contrary to ours, the seas in and around Europe are packed with small and medium sized fish with different bone structures and tastes. Herring, sardines, anchovies, perch, bass; these are just a few. The abundance of the small fish makes fishing easier, which leads both the communities and families to fish for their own consumption and results in a widespread of fish markets for people in the look for fresh fish. Families are generally accustomed to clean their own fish and prepare their own portions according to their way of cooking.

However, we are the people of the “Big Fish” Ocean! We are surrounded by an abundance of Pacific treasures: Salmon, halibut, dungeness crab, spot prawns, oyster and much more. We don’t very much enjoy the idea of cleaning or dressing the fish: we don’t want to deal with guts and fins or scales. We’d prefer already portioned sizes and chunks of meat without any bones!

Fresh herring, on the other hand does not fit to these expectations: When you are able to find them in the markets, they are neither cleaned nor portioned. Moreover it is filled with needle like bones, which makes quite hard to enjoy the meat without the hassle. That is why they cannot be considered as the winner when compared with pure white flesh of halibut or with rosy salmon fillets.

Despite to all of the intimidating preparation stage, herring is a local seasonal fish that, I believe, deserves more focus and attention.

Apparently, my next goal would be to find a way to enjoy its rich meat with comparably less struggle. ◊

HOW TO FILLET HERRING

With this technique you don’t need to gut the fish before. While you are filleting the fish you will also get rid of the stomach, organs and etc.

Rinse off the fish and put them in a bowl. Get several plates/bowls to put the fillets and leftovers.

Lay the fish horizontally on one side in front of you. Start filleting by making a sharp cut just behind the gill and continue cutting till you reach the spine and stop. Angle the knife and cut along the spine toward the tail. Try to make it with one move (the fish is small it won’t be a problem) and try not to rip open the stomach and organs. Some bones from the rib cage might end up in the fillet. We will take care of them too.

Pull the fillet up away from the spine. The guts will be held together in a thin sack. Cut the fillet away from the fish and put it in the bowl.

Roll the fish and do the same with the other side of the fish.

Gently wash the fillets, to get rid of any remaining from the guts.

Probably there are still some bones from the rib cage: Lay the fish, inside facing up. Place your knife angled towards the rib cage and start cutting the flesh underneath bones with a gentle move from the middle towards the edge. This way, you will end up having just the fillets; clean and ready to be used in any recipe.

Voila!

PS: There is quite a lot of information on Internet on different filleting techniques of herring.  Don’t hesitate to have a peak. They are quite useful.

HERRING FISH CAKES

 As herring is quite oily and rich in taste, this recipe suggests baking the fish cakes in the oven rather than frying them in the pan.

Ingredients

6 Fresh herrings; cleaned, scaled and filleted then chopped*

12 oz. (approx. 360 gr) Sole, chopped small
12 oz. (approx. 360 gr) Cod, chopped small
1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. Dijon Mustard
15-20 leaves of Fresh Basil, finely chopped
2-3 springs of Fresh Thyme, chopped
1 lemon, zest and juice
1 ½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Black pepper
¼ tsp Cayenne

Method

 
·         Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl. Let the mixture stay in the fridge for 30 minutes.
·         Preheat the oven to 230ºF and line a baking tray with parchment paper.
·         Shape the fish mixture into round patties of 2 inches in diameter and 1 inch thick.
·         Place the patties on the baking tray and cook them for 9 to 10 minutes.
·         Serve them warm on a web of mixed greens with a simple sour cream sauce*