A Fishy 5:2 Diet Recipe – Herring Escabeche

5:2 Diet Herring Escabeche and how travel influences our food.

Making this 5:2 diet dish, I believe, is Karma.  Just before I left for Portugal, I was talking with John from Delishfish about the new herring season which starts in June.  He was explaining to me that the new herrings, called Maatje in the Netherlands, have soft bones so they don’t need to be filleted and can be eaten like sardines, whole.  In fact I subsequently discovered that in the Netherlands, where there’s something close to Maatje fanaticism (the word means ‘virginal’), they also eat these very young fish raw…

For whatever reason I still have some of last year’s herring fillets left in my freezer and it’s obviously time to use them up, so I have been pondering what to make.  I rather like rollmops and had half a mind to make a bowlful.  Then, I went to Portugal and our first hostess served a delicious lightly spiced and pickled sardine dish that I thought would work very well made with my herrings.  In fact perhaps even better made with filleted herrings for a squeamish Brit who isn’t too sure about eating sardine heads.  John’s fillets do come beautifully filleted and pin-boned, so all you have to do is cook them.

I’m increasingly fascinated by the way the popularisation of travel has influenced our eating habits.  As a child I can remember my parents being quite dismissive of their less cosmopolitan friends who looked for English food when they went abroad.  And, the idea of local shops being full of wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic and peppers was unthinkable.  Now the majority of Brits will happily marinade food in wine, add garlic and cook in olive oil.  And some of that I am sure is a bringing back of holiday experiences.  What we are not so good at doing is adapting recipes to suit what is easily available, local and seasonal.  The humble tomato is a great example.  The limitations of the British weather mean our own tomatoes are never quite up to the job if used on a like for like basis in Mediterranean dishes.  But, add a little concentrated tomato puree or an extra glug of red wine and you have a solution.  My herring escabeche is another example.  Although we do sometimes have sardines in the shops, herrings are more common.  And  I have to say – a worthy substitute.

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5:2 Diet Herring Escabeche

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

30 mins

Total Time

40 mins

 

Course: Lunch

Cuisine: European

Servings: 2 -4

Author: Fiona Maclean

Ingredients

• 4 herring fillets or mackerel, or whole small sardines
• 30 ml wine vinegar
• 40 ml olive oil
• 1 lemon zested and squeezed
• 1 teaspoon flour
• 3 cloves garlic peeled and crushed or finely chopped
• 1 carrot peeled and finely sliced
• 2 shallots peeled and finely sliced
• 2-3 sprigs fresh thyme or rosemary or oregano
• 1 piece star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1 pinch saffron
• 2-3 cloves

Instructions

1. Crush the cloves, star anise and coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar
2. Dust the herring fillets with flour and fry in a little olive oil skin side down till the flesh starts to turn opaque and the skins start to go crispy
3. put the remaining oil in a small pan and soften the carrot, shallot and garlic over a low heat for 5-8 minutes. Add all the spices, the lemon zest and the thyme and infuse for 10-15 minutes while the mixture cools
   
   
4. Add the vinegar and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste
5. Lay the herring fillets out on a shallow dish so there is one layer of fish. Pour over the infused oil and vinegar and then cover and put in the fridge overnight
   
   
6. Serve at room temperature or gently warmed through in the oven with your choice of salads. For 5:2 Dieters or others on a low calorie diet, drain off as much of the marinade as possible.

Recipe Notes

This dish will keep well in the fridge for up to a week, so long as the fish remains covered with marinade.  Remember to drain off as much marinade as possible before eating.  You may vary the spices with fennel seed, cardamom and black peppercorns

I ‘constructed’ the recipe based on Ana’s explanation and by reading a few recipes for escabeche on the internet and mixing and matching spices and herbs that I had to hand.  I think Ana’s portuguese sardine escabeche may well have had fennel in it so next time I will try adding some finely sliced fennel to the carrot and shallot mixture.  And, there’s definitely a few bay leaves in there, which I completely forgot!

I’ve called this a ‘fishy 5:2 diet recipe’ because it is quite a rich and calorific mixture.  But, it’s the type of dish to enjoy with a lot of light salads and perhaps a warm bean or lentil dish – one fillet weighing 40g will use up about 220 cals of your daily calorie allowance so long as you drain off as much as possible of the marinade.  And, I’m not kidding, one fillet is quite filling and quite enough for a serving – a little in the same way that a small amount of smoked salmon is.  But a lot cheaper and just as good for you as all oily fish are.  I made a warm bean salad using a can of mixed beans with a little olive oil, half a chilli pepper,  half a red pepper with a little garlic.  Three tablespoons of the bean mixture are just 60 calories so that’s around 320 calories for a very filling supper.  Perfect for a 5:2 fast day.