Soused herring with dill bread

Name: Soused herring with dill bread
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 1 teaspoon mustard seed; 2 sprigs of fresh dill, plus extra to garnish; piece of bay leaf; 1 teaspoon sugar (optional); 1 small onion, peeled and thinly sliced; 1 carrot, peeled and sliced; 2 celery sticks, trimmed and sliced; 1 teaspoon dill seed; sea salt; 4 plump, spanking fresh herrings, scaled, gutted, heads removed and filleted; white wine vinegar; Dill Bread for serving; 120 ml white wine; 4 plump, spanking fresh herrings, scaled, gutted, heads removed and filleted

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Richard Corrigan Cookbook

By Richard Corrigan

Published 1999

About

Soused fish is a humble dish, but it seems to me more honest than grilled fish with a trendy garnish. It sustained many a fishing family in the coastal towns of Ireland in the last century. Herrings are soft and succulent prepared this way. If you like you can add a garnish of cucumber and plain yogurt or soured cream.

Ingredients

4 plump, spanking fresh herrings, scaled, gutted, heads removed and filleted
white wine vinegar
Dill Bread for serving

Method

Immerse the herring fillets in white wine vinegar to cover and leave in a cool place for 4-5 hours. The vinegar will dissolve the majority of the remaining small bones in the fillets. Drain, reserving the vinegar, and pat the fillets dry with kitchen paper. Remove any bones that haven’t dissolved.

Combine all the ingredients for the souse, except the sugar, in a large pan and add