Herring Papillotes

 Recipe from chef patrick

Ingredients :
“A la boulonnaise”

Herring Papillotes for 6 guests :

6 fresh herrings, with their eggs
200 gr of mushrooms (champignons de Paris), clean
4 shallots
80 gr of butter
1 small bunch of chervil
sunflower oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Direction :
Scale the herrings, cut the heads and separate 12 fish fillets (ask your fishmonger to do this).
Mix the peeled shallots, the butter, the chervil and the herring eggs in a blender for 15 seconds.
Turn on the oven at a temperature of 400°F (200°C or th6).
Cut 6 rectangles of aluminium foil. Put some oil in the center of each rectangle, then place a fillet (skin side against the aluminum foil). Add some herring mixture and then place another fillet on top. Close the herring papillotes and cook them in the oven for 20 min.
Serve these papillotes slightly opened and placed on oval-shaped plates.

If you are not able to find herring eggs ask your fishmonger to give you some other fish eggs.
During the 1980s nobody wanted to buy herrings that contained eggs in Rungis and then... Joel Robuchon found a new recipe for his menu: Herring Caviar in Green Grape Juice !
Newspapers raved about this dish, so there were no more herring eggs to be found in Rungis for a whole year, except for regular customers …
A single magic recipe was enough to turn the vile eggs that had been thrown away for ages in all of the restaurant bins in France and in Navarre into a noble ingredient. This surely amused many a Northern cook!