Smoked rollmops
Recipe Facts
Difficulty level:
easy ◉◉◎◎◎
Quantity for:
approx. 4 people
Preparation time:
⧗ individual
Grilling time:
⧗ individual
Grill(s) & Equipment:
• Smoker, smoking chips
Ingredients
• 1 kg herring fillets
• 3 pickled cucumbers
• 1 onion
• 100 ml vinegar (10%)
• Alder or beech wood chips for smoking
For the brine:
• 80 g salt to 1 l water
• some juniper berries,
Quantity according to taste
preparation
➊ Dissolve the salt in cold water and add the juniper berries. Place the fish fillets in a container and pour in the brine. Leave the whole thing to cool for 10-12 hours. The salt content of the brine can be adjusted to taste, but should be in the range of 5-8%. As a rule of thumb, the higher the fat content of the fish, the closer to 8 percent should be.
➋ Cut the cucumber into strips and the onion into slices. Then blanch the onion in boiling water for about 5 minutes, remove and place on a draining rack. Use a brush to apply the vinegar to both sides of the onion slices and leave to soak for about 10 minutes.
➌ After the resting time, remove the herring fillets from the brine, rinse and drain well. Place cucumber and onion on each fillet and roll up the fillets. Secure the rolls with toothpicks. Then place the rolls on the grill in the smoker and let them dry for around 30 minutes at a temperature of around 45 °C (without smoke).
➍ Then start the smoke generator and smoke at 50–60 °C until a light brown color is achieved. Then switch off the smoke generator and leave the rollmops in the smoker at 70–80 °C for approx. 15–30 minutes (depending on size).
R ecipe by Krzysztof Lesniewski
Krzysztof Lesniewski is a chef, author and member of Euro-Toques Polska - a European association of top European chefs whose goal is to jointly preserve Europe's culinary traditions. He is committed to Poland's culinary heritage and shares his knowledge and recipes of traditional preparation methods in his books and workshops.
Recipe from FIRE&FOOD issue 02/2022