One must have at the Christmas dinner tables in Poland is herring. There are multiple varieties of traditional Christmas herring, including mustard herring, sour cream herring, or Kashubian-style herring. Kashubian-style herring originated in the Kashubian region of north Poland but is also very popular in other parts of this country. The fermented herring is mixed with tomato sauce, aromatics, and raisins or prunes. It can be prepared in advance, a day or two before Christmas because it will develop the flavor with time.
In this recipe, we recreated beloved Christmas’ herring using fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms. We chose shaggy inkcap mushrooms because they have a herring-like shape and because they grow in the late fall-early winter season. You can find more about the fermentation of this kind of mushroom here.
Kashubian style vegan herring
Equipment
- 1 jar
- 1 pan
- 1 spoon
- 1 Knife
Ingredients
- 90 gram fermented shaggy inkcap mushrooms
- 75 gram red onion
- 15 gram raisins or chopped prune
- 1 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp vinagar
- ¼ tsp sugar
- ¼ tsp marjoram
- ¼ tsp mustard seeds
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 allspice corn
- 50 ml water
- peper
Instructions
- Heat the oil in the pan. Chop the onions and fry them for about 3-4 minutes.
- Add sugar, allspice, bay leaf, marjoram, mustard seeds, and raisins. Fry for 1-2 minutes.
- Add tomato paste, vinegar, and water. Fry for another 5 minutes.
- Turn off the heat. Leave the mixture to cool down.
- Drain the ink mushrooms. Prepare a clean jar.
- Put a layer of mushrooms into the jar.
- Put a layer of the mixture from the pan on top. Repeat these steps until you use all the ingredients.
- Let the flavor develop. Close the jar and place it in the fridge for at least a couple of hours (or night) up to 24 hours.
- You can serve the vegan herring with bread.
