Asian-Style Fried Herring

Ingredients

• 4 green herring (pre‑cooked, peeled)
• Salt
• Pepper
• 2 tbsp flour
• 3 tbsp oil
• 2 red onions
• 35 g ginger (1 piece)
• 1 stalk lemongrass
• 3 lime leaves
• 1 red chili pepper
• 200 ml white wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp cane sugar
• 2 tbsp Soy sauce
• 2 star anise
• 6 allspice berries
• 5 white peppercorns

Instructions

1. 1.

   Wash herring thoroughly inside and out, pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Dredge each fillet in flour, tapping off excess.

2. 2.

   Heat oil in a large skillet. Fry the herring for about 4 minutes on each side.

3. 3.

   Place the fish side by side in a shallow wide baking dish with high rim or in a bowl, let cool slightly.

4. 4.

   Peel onions and slice thinly. Peel ginger and slice thinly as well. Remove outer leaves of lemongrass, trim ends, cut remaining stalk into small pieces. Rinse lime leaves, dry, optionally cut into pieces. Rinse chili pepper; if less heat desired, halve it and scrape out seeds.

5. 5.

   In a pot combine vinegar, 200 ml water, 1 tsp salt, sugar, soy sauce, onions, ginger, lemongrass, lime leaves and chili. Add star anise, allspice and white peppercorns, bring to a brief boil then simmer for 10 minutes over low heat. Remove from heat and let the liquid cool about 5 minutes.

6. 6.

   Pour the still warm broth evenly over the herring, allow everything to chill completely, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 2 days to marinate.