Category: Fish

Kedgeree

  • This dish was very popular in Victorian times in Britain.
  • It originated in India and was often served for breakfast.
  • It originated in India and was called – ‘khichari’.
  • It was started as a dish with rice, fried onion, lentils and eggs.
  • Over time, the lentils were left out and fish was added.
  • There are many different recipes  but they all include: boiled rice, fish (often smoked) and hard boiled eggs. Paprika, cayenne pepper or curry powder is added.
  • I made this whilst doing some research into old English recipes.
  • Everyone loved it and I thought that it would be a “hit” in Poland too.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 onions – finely chopped
  • 75g butter (do not stint on this)
  • 300ml of vegetable stock
  • 200g-250g long grained rice – boiled
  • 250g-300g smoked haddock
  • 3 – 4 hard boiled eggs – cut into quarters
  • 1 lemon – cut into quarters
  • 1 teaspoon ground paprika or cayenne pepper
  • Salt and pepper to taste
  • *
  • Flat leaved parsley to garnish

METHOD

  • Poach the fish in the vegetable stock for 6 – 8 minutes.
  • Remove the skin and flake the fish.
  • Meantime melt the butter in a large frying pan.
  • Gently fry the onions till golden.
  • Add rice and a few tablespoons of the stock.
  • Add the paprika, stir and continue cooking.
  • Add the flaked fish and more stock if too dry.
  • Cook through for a few minutes.
  • Season to taste.
  • Serve in a large dish with hard boiled eggs and lemons around the side.
  • Garnish with flat leaved parsley.
  • Diners should squeeze lemon juice over their portion.

 

Fish Pierogi

  • I decided to try these after making fish pulpety, which were so good.
  • I adapted the filling slightly.
  • I used frozen basa fish but cod or haddock would also be good.
  • I have not made pierogi with a fish filling before – the verdict – delicious!

Ingredients – Filling

  • 150-200g cooked white fish
  • 1 onion chopped fine
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1 egg – beaten
  • 1 slice white bread or a small bread roll
  • 1 tablespoon of dried breadcrumbs
  • Chopped flat-leaved parsley
  • Salt & Pepper to taste
  • *
  • Melted butter – to serve

Method – Filling

  • Fry the onions gently in the butter till golden.
  • Leave the onions to cool.
  • Make crumbs from the white bread.
  • Chop the fish into small pieces.
  • Mix the ingredients together.
  • Season to taste.
  • Use the filling to make pierogi *in the usual way.
  • *
  • *Quick recap of pierogi instructions below

To Serve

  • These are good served just with the melted butter.
  • I also liked the gently refried ones, in the butter, the next day.

*Pierogi Instructions

Ingredients – Dough

  • 250g pasta flour or plain flour & 2 tablespoons of fine semolina
  • 150ml water
  • 1 tablespoon oil – sunflower or light olive
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg yolk

Method – Dough

  • In a jug or bowl mix together the water, oil and the yolk.
  • Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
  • Pour in the liquid from the jug and initially use a knife to mix this into the flour and then use your hands to mix the liquid and flour to get a ball of dough.Turn this out onto a floured board and knead the dough for a few minutes until you have a smooth ball.
  • Cover and leave to rest for about ½ an hour.
  • *
  • Cut the dough into half.
  • Prepare a large tray and cover it with a clean cotton or linen tea towel and sprinkle this with flour.
  • On a floured board roll out the dough a half at a time until you have a sheet of thinly rolled dough.
  • Cut out circles using a 7 cm diameter cutter.
  • The excess dough can be re-mixed and rolled out again.
  • Around a half tablespoon of filling is put on  each circle and then they are folded over and the edges pinched together to make a good seal.
  • You learn from experience how much filling to put in as too much will make it hard to seal them and if not properly sealed they will burst on boiling.  Do not worry if you have a few mishaps – it still happens – even with experience – it is hard to salvage one that has gone wrong – just accept that there will be a few that you do not cook.
  • Place the sealed pierogi on prepared tray until they are all made, do not let then touch each other.
  • *
  • To cook the pierogi, use a large pan of boiling water to which you have added some salt and a drizzle of oil.
  • Drop the pierogi in one by one and allow them to boil.  I usually do about 5 to 6 at a time.
  • As they cook they will float to the surface, let them boil for 2 minutes and then remove them with a slotted or perforated spoon and put into a colander above a pan for a few seconds to drain and serve with melted butter.
  • Continue boiling batches in the same water.
  • If you want to make all the pierogi to serve together then you need to get a large oven proof dish.
  • Melt lots of butter in the dish.
  • Keep the dish warm in a low oven.
  • As you take out the cooked pierogi add them to the dish and coat them with the melted butter.
  • Keep on adding more as they cook.

Fish Soup

  • I thought that this soup would be excellent for Good Friday.
  • The base is a simple vegetable soup with mainly “green” vegetables and a few carrots.
  • You can vary the vegetables that you use.
  • Any white fish will be good and  you just need small pieces.
  • Where my late father used to live the small river formed part of the border between the then Poland and Russia.
  • He would often catch river fish, which he really liked.
  • I am sure he would have enjoyed this soup. 

Ingredients

  • 150g white fish  (Basa, Cod or Haddock)
  • 1 onion 
  • 2 leeks
  • 2 sticks of celery
  • ½ tin of sweetcorn
  • 1 large carrot
  • 3 tablespoons of butter
  • 1½ litres of vegetable stock
  • 2 tablespoons of soured cream
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Chop up the onion and leeks.
  • Fry them gently in the butter.
  • Chop the celery into thin slices.
  • Chop the carrots into small pieces.
  • Mix all the vegetables together and add the stock.
  • Bring to the boil and then simmer till nearly soft.
  • Cut the fish into small pieces and add them to the soup.
  • Simmer till the fish is cooked.
  • Stir in the soured cream.
  • Season to taste.

 

Royal Doulton Burgundy Soup Plate

Optional – If you use more fish you can serve this more as a main dish .

Fish Pulpety

  • There are several Polish saying around fish.
  • My father used to say – ryba lubi pływać – which translates as – “Fish likes to  swim”  -this means – “You have to have a drink when eating fish” or  “You have to eat some fish when having a drink (of alcohol).”
  • If one gets an invitation  –  na rybkę (for a little fish)  – it means  – “come over for a drink (and some fish).
  • A third one translates as  – “Fish, to taste right, must swim three times – in water, in butter and in wine”.
  • *
  • Pulpety are usually little “meat” balls – cooked by simmering in stock. 
  • Here they have been made with cooked white fish.
  • * 
  • They can be served with sauces or dips or served in soups.

Ingredients

  • 150g cooked white fish
  • 1 onion chopped
  • 30g white breadcrumbs – moistened with a little water or stock if available
  • 1 tablespoon of dried breadcrumbs
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tablespoon of  plain flour
  • Salt & Pepper
  • *
  • Plain flour for shaping balls

Method

  • Mix fish, onion and bread together using a mincer or mini chopper.
  • Add eggs, dried breadcrumbs, flour and salt & pepper.
  • Make small balls using flour to coat.
  • Boil in salted water or vegetable stock.

Option

  • Fry the chopped onion in a little butter first.
  • Served alone –  add your favourite sauces or dip.
  • Served in a light “green” vegetable soup.

 

Tuna Salad – Mostly New World

  • This salad is based mostly on vegetables that came from the New World.
  • It is very colourful.
  • The proportions are not so important – I have given what I used.
  • It is best to use a different colour for the pepper to the chilli so you can tell the difference.

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of Tuna – drained
  • 1 avocado – peeled and sliced or chopped
  • *
  • 1 tin of Beans – Cannellini, Pinto or Mixed – drained
  • 4 tomatoes – chopped
  • 1 small tin of sweetcorn – drained (or cooked frozen sweetcorn)
  • Yellow or Orange Pepper – chopped
  • 2 red chillies – chopped fine
  • 1 bunch of spring onions – white and green parts chopped
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1-2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt & pepper to taste.

Method

  • In a large bowl mix all the vegetables except the avocado.
  • Pour over the lemon juice and olive oil and season.
  • Put the ingredients into a large serving dish.
  • Put the avocado and tuna on top and mix in slightly.

Dish is Cadiz by Meakin – 1964 – 1970

Tuna Spread

  • There are many recipes in my Polish cookery books for a variety of spreads using cooked meat or fish.
  • In Polish this would be called pasta – a paste or a spread.
  • This is based on my salmon spread recipe, which was given to me by my late cousin who lived near Durham.

Ingredients

  • Tin of tuna in brine, spring water or oil
  • 200g of cream cheese or yoghurt cheese
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Grated rind of half a lemon
  • *
  • A little soured cream- optional
  • Salt and pepper
  • Pinch of sugar – optional

Method

  • Drain the tuna from the liquid in the tin.
  • Remove the skin and any bones.
  • Mash the tuna up with a fork.
  • Add the cheese and the lemon juice.
  • Mix it all together to a smooth paste.
  • Add some soured cream to make a softer spread.
  • Season to taste.
  • *
  • Put into a bowl to serve or into individual little pots.
  • *
  • Serve with bread, toast or crackers and green salad.
  • Or use as a dip with crudities.

Tuna Salad with French Beans

  • One of my friends from Leeds came round yesterday with freshly picked produce from her allotment.
  • Green & Purple French beans were amongst them.
  • I topped and tailed these and steamed them.
  • Sadly the beautiful purple ones loose their colour and are just a slightly darker green than the others.
  • I served some of them with buttered dried breadcrumbs – à la Polonaise and
  • Used the rest, cold, in this tinned tuna salad with other ingredients I had in my store cupboard and freezer. 
  • The proportions are not so important.

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of tuna chunks- in brine or oil
  • Crisp lettuce leaves 
  • Steamed French beans
  • Cooked peas
  • Cooked sweetcorn – frozen or tinned
  • 2 hard boiled eggs
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
  • Salt & Pepper to taste

Method

  • Chop the French beans into small pieces.
  • Mix these with the peas and sweetcorn
  • Drain the tuna from the brine or oil and break up the chunks.
  • Mix the tuna with the cooked vegetables.
  • Add the lemon juice and mayonnaise and mix well.
  • Season to taste.
  • Shred the lettuce leaves.
  • Arrange lettuce leaves over a large plate plate or a shallow bowl.
  • Place the tuna mixture on top of the lettuce leaves.
  • Chop the hard boiled eggs into small pieces and sprinkle these over the top of the tuna mixture.

Salmon Spread

  • There are many recipes in my Polish cookery books for a variety of spreads using cooked meat or fish.
  • In Polish this would be called pasta – a paste or a spread.
  • This recipe was given to me by my late cousin who lived near Durham.

Ingredients

  • Small tin of pink salmon
  • 200g of cream cheese or yoghurt cheese
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • *
  • A little soured cream- optional
  • Salt and pepper

Method

  • Drain the salmon from the liquid in the tin.
  • Remove the skin and any bones.
  • Mash the salmon up with a fork.
  • Add the cheese and the lemon juice.
  • Mix it all together to a smooth paste.
  • Add some soured cream to make a softer spread.
  • Season to taste.
  • Put into a bowl to serve or into individual little pots.
  • *
  • Serve with bread, toast or crackers and green salad.
  • Or use as a dip with crudities.

 

Served on an oval plate by Johnson Brothers – Snowhite – 1960-1979

Note

You can use some left over poached fresh salmon instead.

 

Herring Salads

Salted herrings are very, very popular in Poland, they have been a staple in Northern Europe since Medieval times as this was the way to preserve and transport fish – usually in barrels.

Śledź is the Polish word for herring.

Matjes herrings (matjasy in Polish) are young herrings which are caught throughout May and June before they start spawning in July.

The way that they are prepared originated in The Netherlands and the name comes from the Dutch word maagd which means maiden(because they are young fish).

Often you will see the phrase à la matjas – this means that they are in the style of the matjes herring but they will be a slighty older fish and not as expensive .

Salted herrings need to be soaked, often for up to 24 hours, in water to remove some of the salt.

I have used already prepared à la matjas herrings and I think they are still too salty – so I take the fillets out of the oil they are packed in and put them in milk for 10 to 15 minutes (you can do longer) and then pat them dry and slice them.

 

These herring salads are often served as an hors d’oeuvre (zakąska in Polish – something to bite after), appetizer, entrée or starter.

They are usually one of the dishes served at Wigilia (Christmas Eve).

Thinly sliced onions are a must to serve with the herrings!

Simple Herrings 1

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herrings
  • Thinly sliced onion
  • A little lemon juice

Simple Herrings 2

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herrings,
  • Thinly sliced onion
  • Chopped gherkins (ogórki).
  • A little liquor from the gherkin jar

Simple Herrings 3

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herrings,
  • Thinly sliced onion and
  • Sliced (red skinned) apple
  • A little lemon juice

Herring Salads

The dressings used are: lemon juice, mayonnaise (full fat is best here), soured cream and horseradish – on their own or as a mixture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have not given quantities – exact amounts are not critical.

Herring & Apple Salad

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions,
  • Chopped (red skinned) apples
  • Dressing

Herring & Potato Salads

The following salads are variations on  classic Polish potato salads.

Herring, Potato & Gherkin

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Cold boiled or steamed,chopped potato,
  • Chopped gherkins
  • Dressing

 

Herring, Potato, Gherkin & Hard-boiled Eggs

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Cold boiled or steamed,chopped potato,
  • Chopped gherkins
  • Chopped hard-boiled eggs
  • Dressing

 

Herring, Potato & Peas

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Cold boiled or steamed, chopped potato,
  • Cooked peas
  • Chopped hard-boiled eggs
  • Dressing

Herring, Potato, Peas & Hard-boiled Eggs

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Cold boiled or steamed, chopped potato,
  • Cooked peas and dressing
  • Chopped hard-boiled eggs
  • Dressing

Herring, Apple, Bean & Hard-boiled Eggs

When I first saw this recipe I was not sure how the beans would go with the rest of the ingredients.  Having tried it,  I think the taste combination is wonderful!

Ingredients

  • Thinly sliced herring
  • Thinly sliced onions
  • Chopped (red skinned) apples
  • Haricot beans  – tinned beans  with the tomato sauce washed off , rinsed and patted dry
  • Chopped hard-boiled eggs
  • Dressing

Chopped parsley & chives

All of the salads can have chopped flat-leafed parsley and/or chives sprinkled on top.

Flat Leaved Parsely

 

Updated April 2020