The last of three recipes that use mackerel
or herring roes.
There are two types
of roe: hard and soft. The former comes from female fish and contains the egg, and
the latter, sometimes called melts, are from the male fish and contain the
sperm. This recipe, just like the other two, use soft roes. Eating the sperm
sac of a fish might appear to be more of an ordeal than a pleasure, but they
are tasty and can be picked up very cheaply at the fishmongers. Alternatively,
when buying mackerel or herring, you can ask the fishmonger to keep behind any
roes that might be present as he scales and guts them. At home, simply sequester
them in a freezer bag until you have for a recipe. They are an acquired taste
because they are very slightly bitter and so they lend themselves to creamy and
buttery ingredients (for example see #159
Creamed Roe Loaves).
Jane makes a point for this recipe to try
and buy nice neat matching pairs of roes, rather than just the cast offs that
‘have been flung on to a separate tray’. I would have thought that this recipe
would be perfect for the roes that are so carelessly thrown onto the roe tray. Not
that this happens anymore – because they are not so popular these days, you almost
always have to buy frozen packs.
This recipe just shows how the British just
loved to pot things: meat, fish, cheese. It can all be potted and preserved for
a later date. In this case the roe paste will only last maybe 4 or 5 days in
the fridge, but that’s a lot longer than raw roes would last.
To make your roe paste, first fry 7 ounces
of soft herring or mackerel roes in
an ounce of butter, then, Jane says,
to pass them through a sieve.
This was a tricky task, which was made much easier by the utilisation of my mouli-legumes. Beat the warm roes into 6 ounces of softened butter. Jane recommends using slightly salted butter, but I have to say, I prefer normal, salted, butter; after all you’ll only add more salt when it comes to seasoning later!
Next, mix in a tablespoon of double cream, then season with salt, Cayenne pepper and lemon
juice. Finally add a little chopped parsley.This was a tricky task, which was made much easier by the utilisation of my mouli-legumes. Beat the warm roes into 6 ounces of softened butter. Jane recommends using slightly salted butter, but I have to say, I prefer normal, salted, butter; after all you’ll only add more salt when it comes to seasoning later!
‘Serve chilled, but not chilled to
hardness, with thin toast or baked sliced of bread.’
#391
Soft Roe Paste. I liked this paste, the bitter flavour of the roes was cut
with the lemon, cream and parsley whilst still maintaining the roe flavour.
However, it didn’t exactly make me do backflips. Good, but not great, and
nowhere near the dizzy height of previous fishy pastes like #378
Elizabeth David’s Potted Crab.
5.5/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment