Greek Salad with Samphire and Rosemary Salted Herrings

This is another one of those lovely warm salad I've been enjoying. The original recipe called for sardines, but herring was just as good. It also gave instructions for pickling the samphire but I didn't have the time so I just cooked it quickly and added it to the salad. Yummy!

Greek Salad with Samphire and Rosemary Salted Herring

(From The Sunday Times)

(Serves 4)

For the dressing
2 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tsp mustard
squeeze of lemon
handful of mint, finely chopped
parsley, finely chopped
few leaves of oregano, finely chopped
½ tsp sugar
½ tsp sea salt
5 tbsp olive oil

120g samphire 

For the salad
25g sea salt
2 sprigs of rosemary, leaves
4-8 herrings, butterflied
500g heritage tomatoes, cut into different sizes
1 red onion, sliced
1 green pepper, sliced
1 baby cucumber, sliced into 1cm discs
100g pitted kalamata olives
250g good-quality feta cheese, cut in half lengthways

First make the dressing; place the sherry vinegar, mustard, lemon, mint, parsley, oregano, sugar, salt and olive oil into a food processor and blend for 1 min. Transfer to a small bowl.

Bring a small pan of water to the boil and add the samphire, cook for 1 min, drain and then run under the cold tap.

Blend the salt and rosemary in a food processor until well mixed, then sprinkle over the sardines. Heat a barbecue or griddle pan with a little oil and fry the sardines skin side down for 3 minutes until lightly charred. Flip over and fry for another 2 minutes. 

In a large bowl, mix the tomatoes, red onion, pepper, cucumber and olives. Toss with the dressing. Top with the feta and more dressing if needed. Serve the samphire and sardines on the side.

Jamie's 15 Minute Meals: Butterflied Herring with Tuscan Bread Salad

Another one of Jamie's 15 Minute Meals, they just seem to tie with the ingredients that I have in at the moment. I did change this one a little though, I used herring instead of sardines and bacon instead of pancetta. I also added in lettuce, but I haven't put that in the recipe below. This was a bit disappointing, the salad was really tasty, but I'm not sure about the herring. It wasn't massively tasty, definitely some lemon would have been good, and maybe sardines would have been better.

Butterflied Herring with Tuscan Bread Salad (from Jamie's 15 Minute Meals)

(Serves 4)

1 pinch saffron

4 spring onions

1/2 red chilli

1/2 bunch parsley

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

2 lemons

olive oil

8 fresh herring, scaled and butterflied

4 rashes bacon

Salad

1/2 ciabatta loaf

1 garlic clove

4 anchovy fillets

extra virgin olive oil

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

800g ripe mixed colour tomatoes

1/2 bunch spring onions

1/2 bunch basil

1 tbsp capers

200g jarred roasted red peppers

30g feta cheese

Put the saffron, spring onions, chilli, parsley, fennel seeds, juice of 1 lemon, 1 tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt and pepper into a food processor, then pulse into a coarse paste. Rub the paste over a baking tray just big enough to lay out the herring flat on top, skin side up. Lay the bacon between the fish, then grill until golden and crispy, about 8 mins.

Cut 4 2cm thick slices of ciabatta and place on a griddle pan until tossed on both sides. Peel the garlic and out it into the processor with the anchovies, 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, the balsamic and half the tomatoes, spring onions and basil. Whizz to a smooth dressing and season to taste, then tip into a large serving bowl.

Add the capers to the bowl, then randomly cut up and add the peppers. Tear the ciabatta into thumb sized pieces, add to the bowl and toss together. Halve or quarter the remaining tomatoes, trim and finely slice the remaining spring onions and add, the pick over the rest of the basil leaves. Crumble over the feta, and drizzle with 1 tsp of olive oil to finish. Serve with the sardines and lemon wedges.

Hot Pickled Herring with Dill Pickle and Egg Potato Salad

I finally found someone to fillet herrings for me! There's a nice man on Borough Market who does it and so I bought three. He filleted them right there in front of me! I thought I'd do something interesting with them so I went for pickling which preserved the flavour and went perfectly with the potato salad.

Hot Pickled Herring with Dill Pickle and Egg Potato Salad
(from Lavender and Lovage)
(Serves 4)

For the potato salad

450g new potatoes, halved if large

dill, finely chopped

parsley, finely chopped

chives, finely chopped

1/2 red onion (peeled and cut into very thin rings)

6 large dill pickles, sliced or diced

2 eggs, hard boiled, and cut into quarters

3 tablespoons mustard mayonnaise

1 tbsp dill pickle juice

salt and white pepper

 

For the herrings

4 herring fillets

150ml dry white wine

150ml water

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

juice of 1 lemon (lemon then cut into wedges)

1 tbsp sugar

1/2 red onion, peeled and sliced into rings

2 bay leaves

1/2 tsp peppercorns

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp salt

 

First make the potato salad. Boil the potatoes for about 10-12 mins until soft. Drain the potatoes and leave to cool.

Mix the mayonnaise with the dill pickle juice and then stir in the chopped herbs.

 

Next pickle the herrings. Place all of the ingredients except the herrings into a saucepan with a tight fitting lid, bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. 

 

Turn the heat down low and then add the herring fillets, put the lid on the saucepan and simmer gently over a low heat for 8 to 10 mins. Then turn the heat off and allow the herrings to sit in the pan for 2 to 4 mins. Drain the fish.

When ready to serve, spoon some of the potato salad onto each plate and place the eggs and onion rings on top. Top with the fish.

Peppered Herring, New Potato and Watercress Salad

This was really easy and quick to make, it was also incredibly flavourful. The orginal recipe uses mackerel but Sainsbury's have started selling smoked herring and I thought I'd give it a go. It's really nice, much easier than the faff of fresh herring with all the bones.

Peppered Herring, New Potato and Watercress Salad
(adapted from Good Food Magazine May 2011)
(Serves 6)

750g baby new potatoes, larger ones halved

5 tbsp light mayonnaise

small bunch chives, snipped

200g watercress

270g pack peppered herring fillets

Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the potatoes until tender, about 15 mins. Drain and allow to cool for 10 mins.

Make the dressing by mixing the mayo with most of the chives.

Divide half the watercress between 6 plates, chop the rest roughly and mix with half of the mackerel, the potatoes and mayo. Toss so that everything is covered in the dressing.

Pile the mackerel-potato mix on top of the watercress, then top with the rest of the mackerel and chives