Sledzie w Smietanie (Herring in Cream Sauce)

Herring is a traditional dish served in Poland at every party, holiday, and often eaten for breakfast as well as supper. There are many ways to prepare the herring, but the two most common are in cream and in oil. Here I’ll show you how to make herring in a cream sauce. If you’ve never had Polish herring before, this is a good start. The cream balances out any fishiness left in the herring, giving the fish a gentler flavor than the oil herring.   

INGREDIENTS makes 5 – 8 servings

1 pack herring fillets (about 500g or 1 lb)

2 cups whole milk

1 onion, sliced into half rounds

juice of half a lemon

1 cup sour cream

1/4 cup whipping cream (or more if necessary)

1 empty and cleaned large pickle jar (or other jar of equivalent size)

INSTRUCTIONS

• 1 pack herring fillets (about 500g or 1 lb)
• 2 cups whole milk

1. Remove the herring fillets from the package and rinse gently under cold water. Put the herring fillets in a large bowl, and pour the milk over them, making sure that all of the fillets are submerged in the milk. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour. This pulls some of the salt and fishiness out of the herring. Make sure not to keep the fillets in the milk for much longer than an hour though, as they will begin to get soft and fall apart.

• 1 onion, sliced into half rounds
• juice of half a lemon

2. Break up the onion slices / half rounds into strips. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the onion, mix, and let sit for 20 min. This softens the onion a bit, and mellows some of the sharp flavor out.

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup whipping cream (or more if necessary)

3. Mix together the sour cream and whipping cream. The mixture should have the consistency of yogurt, or a little thinner if you like. If it’s still too thick, add another splash or two of the whipping cream.

• 1 empty and cleaned large pickle jar (or other jar of equivalent size)

4. Once the herring is done marinating in the milk, remove it, and gently rinse it again under cold running water. Then cut the fillets into bite sized pieces (about 3/4 – 1 inch wide). Place a layer of the lemoned onion strips at the bottom of the jar. Place a single layer of herring pieces on top of the onion layer, then spoon about two tablespoons of the sour cream mixture over the herring layer, making sure to spread it evenly over all of the herring pieces. Repeat this layering process until the jar is full and all of the herring pieces, onion strips, and sour cream mixture are used up. Close the jar and let sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours.

5. After the herring is done marinating, serve it, along with the onion and sour cream, with white bread on the side.