Having Saturdays off is like Christmas come early. I had forgotten how good it felt to have two days to recoup – frankly working six days a week meant loss of contact with family and friends, a most ludicrous scenario and never to be repeated.
I write all this as this week-end took me to Croxley Green in Herts to stay with one of my oldest pals Nikki, a splendid cook,host and all round top human being.
She showed me an old book of her mum’s, a treasure trove of recipes collected over the years. It was a rather precious, dog eared scrap book and one of the dishes she made for us that night was the above starter – a simple yet scrumptious dish of simply marinated kippers, served with hot, crusty bread. It’s a doddle to make and is as cheap as chips. I should cocoa.
Serves 4
4 kipper fillets
1 Spanish onion
1 tsp caster sugar
3 tbs white wine vinegar
4 tbs extra virgin olive oil
4 bay leaves
Black pepper
Arrange the kipper fillets in a shallow dish. Sprinkle over the sugar, pour on the vinegar and oil, top with very thinly sliced onion and tuck in the bay leaves under part of the kippers.
Leave to marinate for at least an hour in the fridge (but preferably overnight) and bring to room temperature before finishing with a good grinding of black pepper and serving with your favourite bread, in this case some toasted sourdough.
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