The thought of eating fish paste may make
people shudder, people would think differently if this recipe were named smoked
fish pâté, I feel. However we are not French so fish paste it remains. Perhaps people
think back to those nasty cheap homogenised pots of meat and fish paste from their
childhood. If you make your own it is a very different creature and I am sure
this one will be same.
The other thing that may put one off from
this recipe is the name of the fish in question – the bloater. It’s not the
most delicious sounding fish is it? There have been several bloater recipes and
this is the final one, but if you are not in the know a bloater is in fact a
cured herring. The cure is very similar to that of the kipper and the only real
difference is that bloaters are cured completely whole giving them a more gamy
flavour than a kipper. Because they are intact they bloat as they smoke, hence
the name.
This is a nice straight-forward easy
affair. Start by gutting your bloaters,
removing any membranes from the cavity. I had just one, but was lucky to find
two nice fat roes inside within so I reserved those and tossed the rest of the
innards in the bin.
Pour boiling
water over your fish and roes; the skin will curl and the body of the fish
will noticeably tense and plump up. Leave for around 10 minutes to poach in the
water. Remove the skin and flake the flesh, being careful to pick out any
bones, don’t worry too much about the very thin hair bones, they will not be
noticed.
Don’t forget to fish out the roes, should you have any. Weigh the fish
and place in a food processor along with its equal weight in softened butter. Whizz up until you have a
spreadable consistency you like. Season with ground black pepper, lemon juice and
a little salt. Serve with hot toast.
You get quite a lot of paste – I got two
250 ml pots from just the one bloater. Not bad at all I reckon.
#358 Bloater
Paste. This was delicious and light – the butter helped whip the bloater
into a wonderful consistency and the lemon juice really accentuated the fish’s
own natural piquancy. Very good. 7.5/10.
2 comments:
Every time I look for a 'bloaters' recipe the pictures are different. The herring in this picture looks practically fresh! The bloaters I bought are very dry and salty and are gutted when I buy them. This is my first time even noticing bloaters in the grocery store and thought I would try them.
Thank you!
Hi Travis - there is sometimes a discrepancy between what are bloaters, kippers and red herrings! In the US and Canada bloaters are more like our kippers which are hot-smoked and certainly don't look fresh!
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