The encyclopaedia of practical cookery

Curried Fresh Herrings. — Select ten large Fresh Herrings, drawing and cleaning them ; wash the soft roes and blanch them in water made acid with a little vinegar or lemon-juice. Slice an onion and fry it in butter in a flat stewpan ; sprinkle over 2 table-spoonfuls of curry-powder, stir it over the fire for two or three minutes, then put in 1 pinch of chopped parsley, one bay-leaf, 1 pinch of salt, 2 wineglassfuls of white wine, and a little fish broth. Put the Herrings side by side in the stewpan (there should be enough liquid to cover them), boil for two or three minutes, then move the stewpan to the side of the fire, put on the lid, and let it remain for ten minutes. Take out the Herrings with a skimmer, and arrange them with the roes on a hot dish ; thicken the sauce with a liaison of yolks of eggs, pass it through a conical strainer over the fish, and serve. Fresh-Herring Balls. — Remove the skin from three Herrings by parboiling them, pick oft' all the flesh from the bones, and mix it up with an equal quantity of the pulp of baked potatoes. Add sufficient warmed butter or cream to form the whole into a paste, shape it into balls, dip them in egg and then in breadcrumbs, plunge them into a frying-pan of boiling fat, and brown. Take them out when done, drain oft all the fat, put them on a napkin on a dish, and serve. Fresh-Herring Roes. — Take out the soft roes of two-dozen-and-a-half Fresh Herrings, and wash and drain them. Put a small lump of butter in a saucepan, warm it, and add a few mushrooms, onions, shallots, and a little parsley, all finely minced ; warm them slowly over the fire without allowing them to take colour, then add the roes, and simmer for a second or two. Cover the inside of a paper case with fish forcemeat to about ^in. in thickness, oil it well outside, place it on the gridiron to warm the forcemeat, put in the Herring mixture, and bake in a slow oven until done. Take off the fat, place the case on a dish, pour over a little Spanish sauce mixed with vinegar, and serve. Fresh-Herring Salad. — (1) Scale and clean two or three large Fresh Herrings, cut off their fins, and split them lengthwise into halves ; rub a small quantity of salt and lemon- juice over them, and leave for a few hours. Wipe them on a cloth, brush over with a little warmed butter, and broil them over a clear fire, turning to do both sides equally. Boil two or three potatoes, taking care not to overdo them, Fig. 954. Fresh-Herring Salad. and cut them in slices. Lay the Herrings on a salad-dish with the slices of potatoes and a bunch of washed and carefully-picked watercress on them, and arrange chopped capers and small bunches of watercress over and around the fish. Mix lj teacupfuls of salad-oil with 1 teacupful of vinegar, season with pepper and salt, pour it over the salad, garnish with some fillets of anchovies, and serve. See Fig. 954.