Introduction: Found swimming in The Pool, catch your herrings off the coast of Lancashire and scouse them up!
A scouser is named after a dish which I have not tried to cook as yet called lobscouse: a stew of meat and vegetables and hardtack that is eaten by sailors. I will find and post a recipe for it soonest.
Preparation time: 2 days and 3 hours and 20 mins
Cooking time: 0 mins (it’s a marinade!)
Home kit: medium saucepan, colander, casserole dish, fridge
Away kit: 1 serving plate
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 6 herring fillets (about 8 oz/225 g each)
- 1½ tbls. salt
- 1 tsp. English mustard powder
- 2 large dill gherkins
- 1 Spanish onion, thinly sliced
For the marinade:
- 1 pint (570 ml) white wine vinegar
- 1 tsp. whole allspice berries
- 1 tsp. whole coriander seeds
- 1 dried red chilli
- ½ tsp. mustard seeds
- a couple of bay leaves
- 2 tsp. soft brown sugar
Method: preheat the fridge to cold (it’s a marinade!)
First half
Make the marinade in a saucepan by combining the vinegar, spices, chilli, bay leaves and sugar with 5 fl oz (150 ml) water. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave until cold. Next, sprinkle the herring fillets with the salt and let them drain in a colander for about 3 hours. After that, rinse off the salt and dry off any excess moisture with kitchen paper.
Second half
Cut each dill pickle into three lengthways, spread the side of each fillet thinly with mustard and place a piece of dill gherkin and some slices of onion horizontally at what was the head end of each fillet. Then roll them up from the head to the tail end – the skin being on the outside – and secure each roll with a cocktail stick. Pack them into an the casserole or dish and sprinkle the remaining onion on top. Pour over the marinade, cover the dish with cling film and put it in the lowest part of the fridge.
Full time results
The herrings will not be ready for serving for at least 48 hours and, in fact, they will keep well for at least a week. Stick on serving plate and eat with slices of fresh crusty bread.