Grilled Herrings with Braised Lentils

Herrings in one form or another, but usually salted and dried, formed the staple diet of many families almost until the twentieth century. The tough and dark ‘red’ herring was very strong in taste but, served with potatoes after soaking, managed to keep hunger at bay. Over the years, we have continued to salt and smoke herring, but now for pleasure rather than necessity, and today the bloater (a closed herring, lightly smoked so that it is still plump and ‘bloated’) and the kipper (a split,