And how to make it:
Take 1 kg (best small sized) baltic herring (= auf deutsch "Kronsardinen" in Finnish "silakka"). Remove the spine with its bones by simply pulling it away from the head side. (The head should also be removed). The spine comes loose very easy if the fish is small sized.
Place one layer of filets with the skin side down into a relatively low shaped with butter fattened porcelain casserole size roughly 25cm times 40cm. Then spread the medium fine chopped or thin sliced garlic over the filet layer, put some roughly crushed fresh white pepper over the filets as well as some rough see-salt. Also very important is the medium fine chopped dill, (plenty), so that it more or less covers the whole layer of the herrings. Then add some small chunks of butter (teaspoon size) over the fish.
Now you repeat the same thing again but with the skin side up.
At the end you make a mix of full fat cooking cream, about 1/2 liter (same as used for whipped cream), mixed with about a tee cup full of home made pasta sauce "pomodoro" (if you happen to have some ready). If you don't want to necessarily cook a whole sauce, then you can take a cup full of ready made tomato pasta sauce as well. As a good alternative and the most simple one is to use a nice ketchup, 1/2 dl.
Instead of the normal whole fat cream you can, of course, use some Italian "Panna" sweet cooking cream. This is very nice because it gets a bit thicker in viscosity when cooked. Then you pour the sauce over the fish. It should pretty much cover the fish with the dill on top.
The oven should be pre-heated to approximately 180 centigrade. Cooking time about 12-15 minutes, depending on how thick the layers of fish are. My experience is that two layers of herring is optimal. Three layers make it too thick and the result is not what I prefer. You may have to experiment with this a bit. If you cook it too long the sauce will get a bit to watery. The sauce should stay nicely creamy.
I think the best thing with this dish to serve is mashed potatoes or in Finnish style dill cooked new potatoes. Just make sure you put the potatoes into boiling water so that they don't split or become watery. After they are through, the water should be taken out and the cooked dill and fresh dill should be added. The cover with a piece of household paper and put the cover on until served. If the potatoes are just slightly to hard as you stop cooking them and they stay under lid, they will be just perfect as served. So much for the potatoes.
Take 1 kg (best small sized) baltic herring (= auf deutsch "Kronsardinen" in Finnish "silakka"). Remove the spine with its bones by simply pulling it away from the head side. (The head should also be removed). The spine comes loose very easy if the fish is small sized.
Place one layer of filets with the skin side down into a relatively low shaped with butter fattened porcelain casserole size roughly 25cm times 40cm. Then spread the medium fine chopped or thin sliced garlic over the filet layer, put some roughly crushed fresh white pepper over the filets as well as some rough see-salt. Also very important is the medium fine chopped dill, (plenty), so that it more or less covers the whole layer of the herrings. Then add some small chunks of butter (teaspoon size) over the fish.
Now you repeat the same thing again but with the skin side up.
At the end you make a mix of full fat cooking cream, about 1/2 liter (same as used for whipped cream), mixed with about a tee cup full of home made pasta sauce "pomodoro" (if you happen to have some ready). If you don't want to necessarily cook a whole sauce, then you can take a cup full of ready made tomato pasta sauce as well. As a good alternative and the most simple one is to use a nice ketchup, 1/2 dl.
Instead of the normal whole fat cream you can, of course, use some Italian "Panna" sweet cooking cream. This is very nice because it gets a bit thicker in viscosity when cooked. Then you pour the sauce over the fish. It should pretty much cover the fish with the dill on top.
The oven should be pre-heated to approximately 180 centigrade. Cooking time about 12-15 minutes, depending on how thick the layers of fish are. My experience is that two layers of herring is optimal. Three layers make it too thick and the result is not what I prefer. You may have to experiment with this a bit. If you cook it too long the sauce will get a bit to watery. The sauce should stay nicely creamy.
I think the best thing with this dish to serve is mashed potatoes or in Finnish style dill cooked new potatoes. Just make sure you put the potatoes into boiling water so that they don't split or become watery. After they are through, the water should be taken out and the cooked dill and fresh dill should be added. The cover with a piece of household paper and put the cover on until served. If the potatoes are just slightly to hard as you stop cooking them and they stay under lid, they will be just perfect as served. So much for the potatoes.
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