Category: Fish

Herring Salad 3

  • This makes a super all in one lunch.
  • It has many classic Polish ingredients: beetroot, hardboiled eggs. herrings and horseradish.
  • The garlic chives grow well in my garden – they are lovely for a garnish – the flowers are super to eat.

INGREDIENTS

  • Shredded lettuce
  • Bottled herrings & the onions
  • Milk to soak the herrings
  • 2 large steamed beetroots – peeled and chopped.
  • 4 hardboiled eggs – chopped
  • Juice from 1 lemon.
  • *
  • Flowers from garlic chives (or chopped garlic chives or chives)
  • *
  • Horseradish sauce to serve

METHOD

  • Drain the herrings and onions from the liquid.
  • Soak the herrings in milk for  couple of hours to remove a lot of the salt.
  • Chop the herring into small pieces.
  • In a dish place the shredded lettuce at the bottom.
  • Layer up with the eggs, beetroots, herrings and the onions from the jar.
  • Pour the lemon juice over them.
  • Lightly mix the ingredients.
  • Sprinkle garlic chive flowers over the top if available (or chopped chives)
  • *
  • Serve with a large dollop of horseradish sauce.

Herring Salad – 2

This is another version of herring salads.

  • INGREDIENTS
  • 1 packet of Matjes style herrings
  • Milk for soaking
  • 2 small onions peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 or 2 eating apples – cored and chopped into small cubes
  • 2 gherkins – chopped into small pieces
  • Juice from 1 lemon 
  • Dollops of soured cream or yoghourt – Optional

METHOD

  • Remove the herrings from the packet (keep the liquid).
  • Place the herrings in a shallow dish of milk.
  • Soak in the milk for several hours.
  • Dry with them off with kitchen roll.
  • Cut them into small chunks.
  • Layer up the ingredients on the long plate.
  • Pouring the herring liquid over the onions.
  • Pour lemon juice over the apples.
  • Place some dollops of soured cream on the top.

Tinned Sprats and Wild Herbs

Spring time and lots of wild herbs are growing.

This is a simple recipe, which can easily be adapted for the ingredients that you have.

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 tin of sprats – (szprotki – in Polish) in oil
  • 1 red onion – finely chop
  • Handful of flat leaved parsley
  • Several young dandilion leaves ( if not available use rocket leaves)
  • Handful of wild garlic leaves
  • Handful of Garlic chives (these grow in my garden)
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  • Drain off the oil from the sprats (keep as you may need a little).
  • Use a fork to chop up the sprats.
  • Add the red onion.
  • Chop all the herb leaves.
  • Add these to the sprat mixture.
  • Mix well with a fork.
  • Pour the juice of the lemon over the mixture.
  • Add any oil if liked.
  • Season to taste.
  • Delicious as a spread on rye bread.
Fresh garlic chives, growing in the garden
Wild Garlic
Flat Leaved Parsley

Fish Names in Polish

  • I have added a new page – this covers popular fish names in Polish.
  • These could be helpful when looking at a menu in a restaurant.
  • You will find freshwater fish rather than saltwater fish are on the menu.
  • I have several fish recipes on the blog and I am hoping to write more.
  • Below are a few photographs of some of my fish dishes.

Fish Soup – Gdańsk inspired

  • I read that fish was very popular in the Gdańsk region.
  • Fish soup was one of the most expensive starters on several menus.
  • I tried it in the Motlava (yes that is the spelling!) restaurant in Gdańsk.
  • It was a clear soup with carrots and celery – not a lot different from my fish soup with celery.
  • Personally – I thought it was a bit too salty.
  • This one is based on the soup in the restaurant.
  • The menus said it used a fish stock – I have used a vegetable stock.
  • You have to chop the vegetables into very small pieces.
  • The soup in the restaurant did not have many pieces of fish – I have increased the amount.

Ingredients

  • 2-3 carrots
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 1 onion
  • 250g of fish – Cod/Haddock/Salmon
  • 1 ½ litres of vegetable Stock/ or fish stock
  • 6 allspice grains
  • 6 black peppercorns
  • Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

  • Peel the carrots and chop them into very small pieces.
  • Cut the celery stalks into very small pieces.
  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Add the allspice and peppercorns to the stock.
  • Add the onion to the stock, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Add the carrots and celery, bring back to the boil.
  • Simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Chop the fish into small chunks and add to the soup.
  • Bring back to the boil then simmer for around 5 minutes.
  • Season to taste and serve.

Gdańsk soup on the left – mine in a Royal Doulton Carnation soup plate on the right.

Back from Gdańsk

  • I am back from a short trip to Gdańsk.
  • This year is was dry nearly all the time – often with blue skies.
  • We went to some old favourite restaurants, bought pastries from bakeries and tried new places to eat.
  • I read that the local food here is fish and wild game and tried some duck pierogi again as well as wild boar – dzik in Polish.
  • The sign translates as – Sooo delicious because they are Polish.
  • In my next posts I will look at some recipes from my last visits and some new ones discovered this time.

“Pepper Pie”

  • I got this recipe from my sister who lives in Manchester.
  • Her daughter, who visits her, often usually makes this for lunch as it is so easy.
  • It is a tinned tuna & pepper tart, rather like a quiche but without any cheese.
  • They have named it “pepper pie”.

INGREDIENTS

  • Shortcrust pastry
  • 1 tin of tuna drained – forked apart
  • ½ a red pepper chopped
  • 150 ml of Greek style yogurt (like 1 small carton)
  • 1 egg
  • Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  • Per-heat the oven to GM 5 GM 190°C.
  • Grease a loose bottom tart tin – 18/19cm in diameter.
  • Roll out the pastry thinly and line the tin.
  • Put the pepper on the base of the tart tin.
  • Add the tinned tuna.
  • Mix the yoghurt and the egg.
  • Pour this over the tuna and pepper.
  • Season to taste.
  • Bake in the oven for around 30 minutes.
  • *
  • Lovely hot or cold.

Option – blanche and dry the pepper first.

Fish Soup with Leek & Potato

INGREDIENTS

  • 300 – 350g of white fish (cod, haddock or pollock)
  • 1 medium onion
  • 2 leeks – the white part
  • 3 medium potatoes (floury type are best)
  • 2 tablespoons of butter  – to fry the onions
  • 1½ litres of vegetable stock
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 4 grains of allspice
  • 4 grains of black pepper
  • 125ml soured cream
  • Salt & Pepper to taste – if needed.
  • *
  • Large handful of chopped flat leaved parsley to serve.

Method

  • Chop the onion into small pieces.
  • Lightly fry in the butter but do not brown.
  • Chop the leek into small rings and add to the onions and butter.
  • Stir and lightly fry – again do not brown.
  • Add the stock, bay leaves, allspice and black pepper.
  • Bring to the boil and then lower the heat.
  • Start to simmer gently.
  • Chop the potatoes into small pieces and add to the soup.
  • Boil gently for around 15 minutes until the potatoes are nearly cooked.
  • Add the fish and cook for about 10 minutes.
  • Break up the fish into small pieces.
  • Season if needed.
  • Stir in the soured cream.
  • Add chopped parsley leaves to serve.

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Royal Doulton Burgundy soup plate

One of my testers thought this was the best ever!

Fish Soup with Cavolo Nero

  • Cavolo nero (Italian) translates as black cabbage and in Polish it is kapusta czarna.
  • In England it is often know as Tuscan Kale.
  • I know that Poles love cabbage but – 
  • This is the first time I have used cavolo nero.

INGREDIENTS

  • 300 – 350g white fish (cod, haddock, pollock)
  • 1 large onion – chopped
  • Butter or oil to fry the onion
  • 100 – 150g cavolo nero
  • 4 tablespoons of tomato puree
  • 3 medium potatoes – starchy are best –  chopped into small chunks.
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 grains of allspice
  • 5 peppercorn grains
  • 1½ – 2  litres of vegetable stock
  • 125ml of soured cream – or more
  • *
  • Salt & pepper to season if needed
  • Chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

METHOD

  • Fry the onion gently in butter – do not brown.
  • Strip the leaves from the stalks of the cavolo nero.
  • Cut into fine strips.
  • Add the cavolo nero and potatoes to the onions and stir.
  • Add the stock and tomato puree.
  • Add the allspice and peppercorns.
  • Bring to the boil.
  • Then heat gently for around 10 minutes until the potatoes are beginning to soften.
  • Add the fish and cook for another 10 minutes.
  • Season if needed.
  • Stir in the soured cream and serve.

  • Royal Doulton Burgundy soup plate

OPTIONS

Fish Soup with Tomatoes

  • Here is another recipe adapted from some of my Polish soup books.
  • It is a very filling chunky soup – nearly a meal in itself.

INGREDIENTS

  • 350g of white fish (cod, haddock or pollock)
  • 1 large onion – chopped
  •  2 -3 tablespoon sunflower oil to fry the onions
  • ¼ of a large celeriac or 4 stalks of celery – chopped into small pieces.
  • 1 leek – the white part – chopped into rings
  • 1 carrot – coarse grated.
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • 1 ½ to 2 litres of vegetable stock
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4 peppercorns
  • Salt & Pepper, if needed, to taste
  • *
  • 75 g macaroni or other small pasta – cooked.
  • Large handful of chopped flat leaved parsley to serve.

METHOD

  • Gently fry the onions in the sunflower oil without browning.
  • Add the celery, leek and carrot, mix and fry a little longer.
  • Add the vegetable stock, bay leaf and peppercorns.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer gently until the vegetables are soft.
  • Add the can of tomatoes and simmer a little longer.
  • Add the pieces of fish and simmer for around 10 minutes.
  • Break up the cooked fish into smaller pieces.
  • Add the cooked macaroni and heat for another minute or two.
  • *
  • Season if necessary (might not be needed)
  • Serve with chopped parsley of top.

Royal Doulton Carnation soup plate.