Herring in mustard marinade

Last year I have subscribed to a Russian food forum Povaryonok, and every morning I receive an email with several recipes of the day. It's a lively forum, where passions fly easily about all things food-related. I am not registered on the site, and don't join in, but do read comments and often smile.
Posters get really heated and emotional about some of the recipes, especially if they are the classics of the Soviet times.
A couple of months ago I've spotted a recipe for marinated herring (if you do follow the link, the recipe is in Russian). Salted and marinated herring is one of the foods the Russians really know what they are talking about.
For some reason, I could never find a decent marinated herring locally. I've tried many varieties sold in supermarkets and delis, and usually what you get is fish which tastes of nothing much but vinegar. It could be in jars with dill and cream, or in mustard sauce but would still taste strongly of vinegar, which in my opinion doesn't do justice to this tasty fish.

If you're as disappointed as I am with the bought marinated herring, it's very easy to make your own.

I have adapted the recipe by the user called Lada from the Russian forum.
The result was utterly delicious, if you like this kind of food. My husband would shudder in mock or perhaps real horror, and my kids would not eat it even if their lives depended on it. I agree, it's an acquired taste.

I think this recipe is a variation of what is known here as a soused herring.

I love it simply on a generously buttered rye bread, or served with plain boiled potatoes.

Herring in mustard marinade
Ingredients:
2 herrings
200ml water
1 bay leaf
1tbsp caster sugar
2tsp sea salt
2tsp dry mustard (I used Colman's)
2tbsp olive oil
1tsp ground black pepper
1/2tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
1/2tsp ground turmeric (optional)
1/2tsp ground cumin (optional)
1tbsp cider vinegar

In a medium pan bring water to boil, add a bay leaf, sugar, salt, mustard and spices, mix well. Boil for half a minute. Let the marinade cool.
If buying a whole herring, ask the fishmonger to remove the head, clean and trim the fish.
I didn't remove the bones, but if that's a problem, please do.
Sliced each fish into 4-5 pieces.
Place the herring pieces in a tupperware container, big enough to hold all pieces in one layer. Pour the cold marinade over the fish. Put the lid on, and place the container in the fridge for 2 days.

Next time I make it, I will add thinly sliced onion and maybe some dill. Cinnamon was hardly noticeable thanks to mustard, so I would skip it altogether.

Sillsallad (Swedish herring salad for #ReadCookEat)

I buy zillions of books, but I also enjoy freebies. I have already mentioned Free eBooks Daily on my blog. I follow them on Twitter (@FreeEbooksDaily and check them out if not daily, then every few days to see what new books have been added). I mostly download historical fiction and cook books, and thanks to Free eBooks Daily I have discovered several authors, whom I never came across before. It's a bit like pot luck, some books are not exactly masterpieces of literature, but there are some true gems (like Moonfixer by CC Tillery) which kept me awake for a few very late nights, as I couldn't put my ipad down. I have first come across Linda K Hubalek when her book Planting Dreams was offered as a free download back in summer. I loved it, and bought two sequels. Then another book by Linda K Hubalek appeared on the site - Prairie Bloomin' (The Prairie Blossoms for an Immigrant's Daughter). Since it was book 2 in the series, I bought the first one as well.
Butter in the Well (A Scandinavian Woman's Tale of Life on the Prairie) is a historical diary set in 1868-1888) This fascinating account is a fictional diary, based on the life of Maja Kajsa Swenson Runeberg, the author's ancestor. She and her husband left Sweden to become the homesteaders in Saline County, Kansas, in 1868.

This is not an idealistic Little House-style portrayal of the pioneer life. The reality was harsh, the nature uncompromising. Life was a constant battle with the elements, as they lived first in the sodhouse, surrounded by rattlesnakes. They literally lived in the middle of nowhere, and depended on each other. No doctor in case of emergency for miles, noone to ask for help when you needed it. So much hardship, so many tragedies, when children's mortality rate was extremely high. It puts everything into perspective, when you read the diary entries about poverty, hunger and death.
You will learn a lot about the life of pioneer women in the prairie, there is an abundance of details on many aspects of the farmers' life, from house-building to harvesting and making preserves.
The book is written in a journal form, a bit repetitive at times, and in a perhaps over-simplified manner, though this might have been a literary device to imitate the diary written by a person without literary accomplishments. The story is sketchy at times,  a mere record of events of what was going on around in the neighbourhood. There were moments when I felt a bit lost, with too many names that meant something for the narrator but were totally meaningless to me as a reader. Personal photos and maps added depth to the narrative, and made it more captivating.
The ebook itself could have benefited from a better editing and proof-reading, there were too many typos which I found distracting.
The author has a great understanding of an epoch she has recreated and possesses a deep knowledge of the pioneer life in the prairie.
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As someone with interest in food history, I enjoyed reading references to different foods and dishes Kajsa made. These were mostly Swedish recipes, but prepared with the ingredients found in Kansas.
Several Christmas meals were mentioned in great detail.

"This year we celebrated Christmas with all the trimmings and traditions of our family. I'll admit we used a primitive substitute for most of our Christmas dishes, but Moder makes the best ostkaka and frukt soppa no matter where she lives. Adelaide gave us some white sugar to make some kringler, the pastry Carl likes. Since we butchered a hog this fall, we had potatiskorv and a smoked ham also. I pickled catfish we caught in the river this fall and mixed it with potatoes and beets for Fader's favourite dish of sillsallad. It doesn't quite taste the same since it is supposed to be made with herring, but he was happy..." (entry for 25 December 1869)

So many new dishes for me to try: ostkaka (a custard dessert or cheesecake), kringler (pastry with icing sugar and nuts), potatiskorv (sausage made with ground meat, onions, potatoes and spices), pepparkakor (molasses and ginger cookies) and other foods mentioned in the book sounded perfect for our #ReadCookEat challenge. In the end I have chosen a pickled herring salad, Sillsallad.

Sillsallad is a Swedish herring salad with soured cream.
I have looked up the recipes online, as I am not very familiar with the Swedish cuisine. I based my recipe on Sillsallad recipe found on Food.com. I have adapted it, having reduced amounts of some ingredients and also did some minor changes with the ingredients themselves.

Sillsallad
Ingredients:
270g rollmops (herring with onion)
3 medium potatoes
250g baby beetroot, pickled in vinegar
3 cornichons, pickled with dill flowers
1 apple
2tbsp cyder vinegar
2tbs caster sugar
2tbsp onion and gherkin marinade from rollmops
1/2tbsp English mustard
for the sauce:
a tub of soured cream, mixed with fresh dill
hard-boiled egg for decoration

The recipe I mentioned above uses bigger quantities of herring and pickled beets. I couldn't find any dried dill, so I used fresh one instead. Of course, the homesteaders would have used a dried dill in the middle of winter.
For this recipe I bought 2 tubs of Young's rollmops.
Boil the potatoes in skins, once cooked, let them cool, before removing the skin and chopping into small pieces.
Slice the herring in two lengthwise, then in half again, and chop into small pieces. Chop the beets, apple and cornichons. Mix all the ingredients in a big mixing bowl.
Prepare the dressing by mixing caster sugar in vinegar with the marinade from rollmops, as well as mustard. Pour over the salad, mix well. Refrigerate for a couple of hours before serving.
Serve with the soured cream mixed with dill on the side.
You may garnish the salad with sliced hard-boiled eggs.

If you enjoy pickles, you will love this salad. If you're not a fan of pickles, then it's not a recipe for you. It is basically pickles upon pickles in a soured cream sauce. Like most Russians, I looove pickles, and am very happy with the dish. On the other hand, I wouldn't offer it to my husband, as he would never eat pickled herring or beetroot (and it's his loss, how can you not like pickles?!).

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I apologize I am so late with #ReadCookEat linky this month, my life has been very hectic, and I am always on the run. Believe me, I haven't lost enthusiasm, in fact I have bookmarked so many recipes already in the books I have read in summer and in September. There will be more recipes coming.

Have you read a book recently which inspired you to run to the kitchen and cook to your heart's content?

Chris from Cooking Round the World and I are inviting you to recreate a meal, inspired by books and join in our #ReadCookEat challenge.

The idea is to choose a book, either a world classic or modern fiction, or even memoirs and pick up a dish mentioned or described in that book and then recreate it in a recipe. Please say a few lines about your chosen book, and maybe even do a quote from the book.

If you decide to take part, please add the badge to your post and link up back to Chris and me, and either use a link-up tool or add the url of your post as a comment. Alternatively, email either of us with the link to your post (my email is sasha1703 at yahoo dot com).
The challenge will end on 30October 2014.
I promise to Pin all blogs posts taking part in this challenge, as well as RT and Google+

Marinated herring (Russian recipe)

Sometimes you don't fancy anything complicated. All you want is something plain, like a dish of boiled potatoes with a blob of butter and a few slices of marinated herring.

For the marinated herring you will need two fresh herrings, gutted and cleaned.

2 tbsp of sugar

2 tbsp of sea salt

1 tbsp of black peppercorns

1 tbsp of mixed herbs

1 tsp of mustard seeds

5 cloves

Put all the spices in the mortar and crush and grind them with a pestle. When the mix is fine, add salt and sugar, mix well.

Cut the herring into slices.

Put the herring slices and the spice mix into a plastic food bag, close the bag and shake it well, so that the fish is evenly coated. Place on a plate, with another smaller plate going on top of the fish in the bag. You will need to add weight over the top dish and keep it like this for two days in the fridge. When the herring is ready, rinse it well under the running cold water to remove all the spicy bits. Serve with the boiled potatoes. You might add a bit of sliced spring onions or a few onion rings and a dash of the extra virgin sunflower oil.

No comparison to the herring horrors that you usually buy in the delis.

Herring under the fur coat (a cold Russian salad)

I have mentioned already a troika of classic Russian salads when I wrote about a salad called Vinegret.

Dressed herring or a herring under a fur coat (lit.) is a very popular Russian layered salad made of the salted herring and cooked vegetables.

I haven't made it for ages, as it is not easy to find good quality salted herring. What you get in the delis across the country here is a marinated herring, a slimey and mushy concoction, very vinegary and odd, it always makes me think of the chemical weapons of mass destruction.

Finally I decided to prepare my own salted herring. I bought a couple of fresh herrings from the fish counter and salted them overnight.

You will need

2 medium potatoes

2 medium salted herrings

1 small onion

1 medium apple

2 medium carrots 

1 egg

2 medium beets

mayonnaise

Cook the beets, potatoes and carrots (separately, you don't want all your veg to go purple), peel the skin and grate each vegatable. Use a bigger grating slot for the potatoes, otherwise it will look like glue. Start layering.

First you do a potato layer.

Second layer: boned and chopped herring.

Third: finely chopped onion

Fourth: a grated apple

Fifth: grated carrots

Sixth: grated beets

Add a generous helping of mayo on the top and spread it all over the beet layer. Decorate with the finely chopped egg (first egg white, then the yolk).

A classic salad is also decorated with a beet rose (I agree my attempt at making beet roses wasn't the most inspiring, lol).

There are several options available: you may skip the apple layer, but I prefer to have an apple, as it adds extra texture and sweetness.

Some cooks put the mayo only over the beetroot. I like to do several mayo layers: first over the potatoes, before adding the chopped herring. And later over the apple and carrots as well (just a bit, not overflowing with mayo).

I understand it is an acquired taste. Despite the fact that he lived in Russia for a while (when doing research for his first book on the organised crime in Russia), my husband never apprecaited any fish dishes that include salted, tinned or pickled fish. When he arrived home yesterday to find the salad in the kitchen, I could see he was looking at it rather nervously, so I laughed and said: Don't feel obliged to eat it, I cooked it as a trip down the memory lane. And I definitely enjoyed it.

The salad will keep well in the fridge for a couple of days, but not longer.