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| And so it was that the Straightmop was born UHG |
Rollmops are traditionally pickled herring fillets rolled around
a savory nugget, usually gherkins or green olives.
Glenn, a friend and fellow forager is a wealth of
information with truckloads of enthusiasm for anything primal. Recently he
kindly gave me some rollmops that he had made from a local fish called ‘Streepies’. He had rolled their little fillets around gherkins. They were amazingly excellent. I
simply had to get some and some more…
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| Glenn casts his net far and wide... wish I could do that UHG |
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| If I were a little fish, I would be afraid. Not of Stef though UHG |
When it comes to a little adventure, Glenn is a pushover, so
it wasn’t long before we headed for the coast with throw-nets and our
friend Stef in tow. It turned out that I was rubbish with the throw-net, so I left
that part to others; in turn Stef proved to be only slightly less useless than
me. Finally it was up to Glenn to sneak up to fling a net around the darting shoals of little fish.
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| A time consuming process, but well worth it UHG |
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| An overnight salting sucks out the extra moisture that you don't want, not to mention adding seasoning UHG |
There weren’t any signs of ‘Streepies’, but we (or should I
say Glenn) managed to net some small ‘Harders' (another local fish). They were too small to fillet, so
I kept them whole and with a toothpick secured an agave pickle in their gut cavity… and so it came to pass that the
fully foraged ‘straightmop’ was born.
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| Agave buds, the perfect straightmop pickle, if you going fully foraged ? UHG |
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| Stef harvesting fennel fronds… an obvious pickling spice UHG |
RECIPE
INGREDIENTS
Fish
Vinegar
Salt
Onion
Pickles / green olives (in this case agave bud)
Pickling spices (I went for foraged fennel flowers, lemon
leaves and Peruvian pepper)
MOTHOD
If you have small fish - scale, gut and take off the heads,
or if they are big enough - scale and fillet them.
Layer the fish with course salt in between and leave in
fridge overnight.
Rinse off the salt.
If you only have small fishies and are going for the new and exciting ‘Staightmop’, stab
a half toothpick through each one to secure your pickle in their gut
cavity. If you have bigger fish and are making good common old Rollmops, roll the fillets around
pickles and zap them with toothpicks.
Pop em into a jar with your pickling spices, a few onion
slices and top up with white vinegar… and there you have it.
They will last in the fridge for weeks.
