Sweet herring

You could be mistaken for thinking Christmas is just around the corner. Mistaken, exactly. Because, my dear friends, Christmas isn’t knocking at your door just yet. It only seems that way 😉

Unfortunately, there’s something to the fact that in December everyone thinks only about Christmas and New Year, and it’s practically impossible to get much done. Let alone move anything forward! So if you really want to get ahead of someone, I recommend doing it right now, because practically everyone is thinking about Christmas.

But since we’re on the subject of Christmas, besides a recipe for some very unusual herring, which I first made last year, I’ve put together a subjective, very short list of the best Christmas presents. Actually, not even a list, just one unique suggestion. I’ve no idea how the exceedingly practical Germans came up with this. Perhaps there’s a little madness running through their veins after all. Christmas madness, of course.

And do remember this, because the Christmas tree you put up at home is supposedly a German invention. So perhaps soon, between the fireplace and the tree, you’ll be placing what I consider this season’s best Christmas present: incredibly practical and for the whole family. Here it is:

Amen, and let’s get to work. Time to make Christmas herring. It’ll be sweet. I promise, and I recommend it.

PS

Oh, and never, ever dare call this best-ever present a „Lufthansa cupboard” in front of a Lufthansa flight attendant. Blitzkrieg guaranteed 😉

* Photo of the best Christmas present: a so-called screenshot from www.worldshop.eu

At a glance:

Preparation time: 65 minutes

Serves: 8 people

How many calories: I don’t know, but it likes to swim

Ingredients for unusual Greek-style herring, for Christmas, for example:

• 400 grams of matjes-style herring fillets (weight of the herring alone)
• 2 large white onions
• 2 medium red onions
• 2.3 tablespoons of white sugar
• 500 ml of tomato passata
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of ground black pepper

How to make sweet herring:

The idea behind this recipe is to make herring that isn’t herring 🙂 I soaked it for a long time and rinsed it with water until it was almost completely unsalted. It’s worth doing this in the morning, for instance, and tackling the rest in the evening. That way it’ll have a good soak and won’t be salty (a little is fine — let’s not go overboard, it is herring after all).

When the herring had stopped „wetting itself” (in other words, had finished junior secondary school ;), I peeled the onions, chopped them into small pieces and added them to the hot olive oil, immediately adding 2 and a half tablespoons of sugar. I mixed thoroughly. I repeated this several times. The onions need to cook properly and become soft, but obviously mustn’t burn.

After roughly 15 minutes, I added the whole carton (500 ml) of tomato passata to the onions. I added a pinch of salt and pepper and began cooking over a low „flame”. After about 45 minutes, once a fairly thick sauce had formed, I took it off the „heat”. I let it cool.

While the onions were cooling, I dried the herring thoroughly with paper towels and cut it into pieces about a centimetre long. I put the prepared onion and tomato passata „sauce” into the container for the herring. I added the herring and mixed thoroughly.

I left it in the fridge overnight. In the morning the herring was fit to eat. The flavour is a little reminiscent of „Greek-style” fish, although it’s not quite the same experience. A reasonably successful experiment, and certainly edible. But I wouldn’t recommend it to traditionalists. Enjoy!

BTW, the recipe comes from „The Primitive Book of Cooking with Recipes”, which you can download completely free. It could also make quite a nice Christmas present. You can print it, bind it nicely and give it as a present to your cookbook shelf 🙂

And if you fancy some traditional Christmas herring, I recommend the recipe for Jewish-style herring.