Dutch Vegan herring sandwich

With this recipe, we recreated a wild vegan version of a Dutch classic: the herring sandwich. The combination of fermented herring with onions and pickles dates back to the Jewish community of Amsterdam. They sold this trinity as a street food. Nowadays, you can find the herring special everywhere in the Netherlands in fish shops and at food stands as a topping for a sandwich.

To give this dish a wild twist, we replaced the herring with fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms (Coprinus comatus), the onions with crow garlic (Allium vineale) bulbs, and the pickles with quick pickled hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) stems.

Shaggy inkcap mushrooms have a very short shelf life. They turn into a black goo, in a matter of several hours, as a result of auto digestion. When you picked the mushrooms be sure to cut them open and cut away any parts that turned black (see the pictures below). The black color indicates that the auto digestion process started and this part of mushroom is spoiled and have an unpleasant taste. Fermentation is an ideal way to preserve shaggy inkcap mushrooms, as it prevents the auto digestion process and preserves the mushroom for a very long time.

Shaggy inkcap mushroom also happens to be a relatively safe one to pick, as there a no real dangerous look-a-likes. Potentially, another type of ink mushroom can be mistaken for the shaggy inkcap, and some of them can cause for some sickness if consumed with alcohol.

Print Recipe

Dutch Vegan herring sandwich

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Fermentation time5 days d

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Dutch

Keyword: Dutch, Herring, Sandwich, Vegan

Servings: 2 Sandwiches

Equipment

• 1 saucepan
• 1 Strainer
• 1 cutting board
• 1 Cutting knife
• 1 Bread knife

Ingredients

• 5 Fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms (See https://chefofnature.com/?p=351, replace the st george mushrooms with shaggy inkcaps)
• 10 Crow garlic bulbs
• 4 Hogweed stems
• 2 tbsp Vinegar
• 2 tbsp Water
• 2 Pistolet style sandwiches

Instructions

Pickles

• Add the vinegar and water to a saucepan and bring to a boil.
• In the mean time, cut the hogweed stems in small cubes. If you have more mature stems, you might have to peel them before cutting since they can become stringy.
  
• Put the cut stems in a small container and pour over the hot water and vinegar mixture and let is rest for 15 minutes.
  

Assembling

• Dice the crow garlic bulbs in small cubes and chop the green parts in small bits.
  
• Cut the sandwich in half and add a layer of fermented mushrooms.
  
• Garnish with the onions and hogweed pickles and serve.