When you buy, or catch, a herring you get a lot more than just a couple of fillets.
You get a load of roe (from the female) and millet (from the male).
Both are excellent to eat. The roe's firm and grainy, the milt really soft and creamy.
Spot the sperm.
The best way to cook these is to dust them in seasoned flour and fry them for 5 minutes being careful not to let them catch and then squeezing some lemon onto them and finally adding a sprinkling of chopped flatleaf parsley. Serve them on buttered sourdough toast.
The roe has slightly more flavour though is not remotely fishy. The milt (above) is reminiscent of fresh foie gras straight out of the frying pan (foie gras poêlé) but without the guilt feeling. Actually, it has less taste than foie gras but the same molten, slippery unctuosity; perhaps it's more like calf's brains.
Talking of guilt, perhaps one should worry about eating thousands of eggs and thousands of sperms. But, at least these little fish lived in the wild off the coast at Aldeburgh until they were caught. And Hugh Fearnley-
Whittingstall eats them so it must be ok.
Talking of guilt, perhaps one should worry about eating thousands of eggs and thousands of sperms. But, at least these little fish lived in the wild off the coast at Aldeburgh until they were caught. And Hugh Fearnley-
Whittingstall eats them so it must be ok.
One thing though; out of 6 randomly chosen fish, 5 were blokes. It must be quite competitive out there in the North Sea.
mmm must try that, i love fois gras! Loved your comment at the end too :-)
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