Johanna Zellmer, from Germany, shows how to make herring salad.
Johanna Zellmer first came to New Zealand from Germany as a backpacker in 1994 and worked with a silversmith in Auckland. Then, on a visit to Australia, she met her husband-to-be and they returned to New Zealand, arriving in Dunedin in 2000 where she had a job teaching jewellery at the Otago Polytechnic school of art.
They also have a 10-acre farmlet above Port Chalmers where they grow vegetables and milk sheep and goats to make cheese.
Her husband does most of the cooking, but she makes German dishes occasionally, and Heringsalat (herring salad) is one of her favourites.
Her mother used to make this often when she was growing up.
It was a cheap dish, as pickled herrings are plentiful in northern Europe. However, here they are imported and a special treat as they are expensive, she says.
• Johanna Zeller is doing an art project with immigrants to New Zealand who are unable to obtain dual citizenship. She plans to make jewellery inspired by their stories for an international exhibition. For more information, contact her at Johanna.Zellmer@op.ac.nz.
Heringsalat (herring salad in sour yoghurtsauce with boiled potatoes)
Serves 4-6
Ingredients
1 kg firm, waxy potatoes
2 jars (500g each) bismark pickled herring or rollmops
1 small onion
1-2 spring onions, or chives or other herbs
4-6 gherkins
1-1½ sweet apples
500g plain, unsweetened yoghurt
250g sour cream
250g quark
1-2 tsp sugar
salt and pepper to taste
Method
Wash the potatoes and put on to boil in their skins.
While they are cooking, prepare the salad by finely chopping the onion, the spring onions or other herbs, peeling and chopping the apple and dicing the gherkins, all to about the same size. You could use a food processor if you prefer. Quantities are variable, and you may prefer not to use all the onion.
Take the fish fillets from the jar. If they are double, slit down the middle and skin each fillet. Scrape the skin at the neck end and lift it between the knife and your thumb then peel the skin off.
Cut the fillets into 2.5cm lengths.
If there are any onions in the jar, drain them and use them in the salad too.
Put the fish in a large bowl and add the gherkin, apple, herbs and some of the onion.
Add the yoghurt, sour cream and quark, then the sugar, salt and pepper.
Mix well. Taste for seasoning - you may need more salt or prefer more onion.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain and serve. Johanna prefers to serve them in their skins but says her mother would definitely have peeled them once they were cooked.
This dish will last in the fridge for four days but will become watery so is best eaten when fresh.
It is a good dish to take to a pot-luck dinner.
• Thanks to Afife Harris and Centre City New World.
