Ever since I lived in Amsterdam, pickled herring has been one of my favorite appetizers. Today, I wish I could simply fill a jar of it from my grocery store’s salad bar (the way I purchase similar items). But one of my mottoes is: If you can’t find it in bulk, make it!
Herring is tough to find at the fish counter though. I learned that here, in the San Francisco bay area, the local fishermen use it for bait to catch the big (generally less sustainable) fish per consumer demand, and the herring boats send most of it to Japan for its roe. So when Kirk Lombard, a local sea forager/educator, invited Scott and Léo (see video below) to go fishing for them last Monday, my dream came true… 8 pounds of cleaned fillets later, we had a few jars of pickled herring.
If you, too, enjoy pickled herring and can put your hand on the fresh fish, here is how to pickle it. Note: This recipe will work for pickling other types of seafood. It is an adaptation of Kirk’s recipe and I used it for eight pounds of fillets, so adapt it to your needs.
the fillets in a brine of 1 part salt to 20 parts water (1 cup
salt for 20 cups of water for 8 lbs. of herring fillets) and let sit in the
refrigerator overnight. The next day, rinse.
Horseradish: Homemade using a root sold loose in the produce aisle (recipe will be in the book.)
Oh and my two-liter jars were purchased from the local thrift store;)
How does pickled herring sound to you?
