Marinated herring toasts, cucumber&mint sour cream
Marinated herring on char-grilled toast, served with cucumber and mint sour cream.
I think these sweet cured herrings were made for toast. Make this classic combination a little more interesting and balance out the sweetness of the herring by serving with a fresh cucumber and mint sour cream.
I could quite easily have this for a quick lunch but would be equally happy piling slices of char-grilled ciabatta high and serving as an appetiser with drinks before a meal.
Alternatively, served alongside a salad of watercress, capers and vine tomatoes this would make an easily assembled and delicious starter.
Ingredients
Serves 4
250g Orkney Herring (marinated in sweet cured dill marinade). These pots of herring normally have around 4-5 fillets in them. Cut each of the fillets in half straight down the middle.
loaf of ciabatta bread
half a cucumber
handful of chopped mint
200ml sour cream
pinch of cayenne pepper
extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp of fresh lemon juice
Preparation
to make the cucumber and mint sour cream
Grate the cucumber into a bowl. Once you have done this, you will have to remove their excess water so that the sour cream remains thick and doesn’t descend into a liquid-ey slop. Do this by wrapping the cucumber shavings in kitchen towel and wringing out the water. You may have to do this a couple of times in order to extract as much water as possible. Sprinkle the cucumbers with a little sea salt.
Combine the cucumber to the sour cream; add the chopped mint, cayenne pepper, lemon juice and season.
to make the herring toasts
Slice the ciabatta into inch thick slices and drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Heat a griddle pan until smoking hot and then lay the slices of ciabatta across the grid lines.
Griddle the bread for 2-3 minutes on each side, until both sides have nice, clearly defined griddle marks.
Spoon the sour cream over the toast, add the herring and serve immediately in whichever style you prefer.
Use any type of bread you fancy for the toast or cream fraiche or yoghurt instead of sour cream.
9am, Friday 7 December, 2007