Herring casserole

This is another Estonian dish – I guess I am in a mood for cooking something which tastes like back home. Slightly salty herring fillet is often used in many Estonian dishes. In Scandinavia as well.  By the way, according to this Swedish chef, it is even possible to make ice cream from herring. That is something I have never heard before! But back to the casserole now.

200 g slightly salty herring fillet

4 boiled potatoes, chopped

1 onion, chopped

1-2 boiled carrots, grated

250 ml milk

1-2 egg, lightly beaten

pepper

some grated cheese

 

# Chop herring fillet and set aside, also chop the vegetables.

# Fry onion until tender.

# Place everything into a casserole pan in layers, keep in mind that potatoes should be both the bottom and top layer. Also sprinkle a bit of pepper between the layers. You probably needn’t to add salt (I didn’t), because the herring itself gives a lot of salty flavor to the whole dish anyway, even though it is “slightly salty”.

# Once you have everything placed in the pan, mix egg(s) with milk and stir in grated cheese. Pour over the casserole and bake at 200 degrees C for about 30 minutes.

It is a nice and filling casserole. I’m not a huge fan of herring actually - especially because my fingers smell like fish after making this dish - but will definitely make this again. 

But I just found out that you’ll get rid of the fish smell if you wash your hands with lemon juice. Should try that the next time.