Sweet-Cured Herring with Juniper and Spignel

Some of the best commercially cured herring comes from Scandinavia, Shetland and Orkney but lots of people cure their own across the Highlands, often using foraged botanicals for flavour. My favourite wild plant for this kind of cure is spignel, which is a member of the carrot family but has a unique flavour that spans dill, fennel and cumin. It grows in clusters in some of the higher moorlands and around old crofts where it was once planted as a root vegetable.