One very popular fish to eat in Sweden is herring, various types of herring prepared in all kind of different ways. I have already written a bit about our love for pickled herring here in Sweden, as well as bit of why/how and when we eat pickled herring in Sweden. So in this post I thought I would share how I make another classic Swedish herring dish, namely Fried Baltic Herring With Mashed Potato And Lingonberry Jam. Which is a very simple, cheap and tasty dish.
Cheap fish. Today I bought Baltic Herring at our local grocery store City Gross here in Karlskrona, price per kilo was 55 SEK or 8.50 USD.
The Baltic Herring was, and is usually, sold like this. The only thing I did before I started to cook them was to wash them and cut out the fin.
Then I seasoned with salt and pepper.
Rolled in a mixture of flour and breadcrumbs.
Melted plenty of butter.
Which I then fried the Baltic Herring in for a few minutes.
Other side.
Done! :-)
And this is how I like to eat my fried Baltic Herring, with home made mashed potato, lingonberry jam, some dill and a slice of lime or lemon. Simple, cheap and most importantly - tasty!!! :p
Now herring is an oily fish and rich in beneficial polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega 3). Which is good for you. But because of environmental toxins in the oceans around here the herring has elevated levels of dioxins that, among other things, can affect fertility in women. Therefore the National Food Administration recommend pregnant and women of childbearing age not to eat herring of any kind from the Baltic Sea and/or Gulf of Bothnia more than once a month. The rest of the population can consume herring once a week, but preferably not more often. Which is quite sad actually, both for the fish and that we have become restricted to eat herring because of this.
But, hopefully we can change this scary development so that we in the future can continue to enjoy our Swedish classic herring dishes - like the one I have written about today. And a good sign that this can happen is that the dioxin levels in people have declined since the 1970s, so we are at least headed in the right direction. Which I am happy about. Because herring is certainly a big part of the Swedish food heritage and I wish it will continue to be a part of our Swedish food future as well.
