Our cookbook of the week is Salt & Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen by chef Alissa Timoshkina. Over the next three days, we’ll feature more recipes from the book and an interview with its author.
A tradition that dates back to ancient Rome, one of the most appealing things about devilled eggs is how varied they can be: from Korean-spiced and cannabis-infused to pimento cheese and miso-ginger, options are limitless. Alissa Timoshkina’s version features “a staple of Soviet-Jewish cuisine,” forshmak (“foretaste” in Yiddish), which in Russia refers to a pâté of salted herring, apple and onion.
“It’s such a delicious recipe and herring is one of those Eastern European, Russian ingredients that lots of people are quite uncertain about. This recipe is a really fantastic one to change people’s opinion about it if they feel a bit unsure, or if they’ve had an unpleasant experience with herring before,” says Timoshkina.
“It’s super easy to make, so there’s no fear of not having enough skills or time to do it. And it makes such a wonderful dish if you’re hosting a party or planning a nice menu to treat someone to something interesting … It’s a brilliant, lovely appetizer to have on the table.”
DEVILLED EGGS WITH FORSHMAK
200 g (7 oz) salted herring fillets in oil
1/4 white onion
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and cored
15 g (1/2 oz) white bread, soaked in milk for 5 minutes and squeezed dry
Finely grated zest and juice of 1 lemon, or more juice to taste
1 tsp salt, or more to taste
1 tsp sugar, or more to taste
Generous pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp sunflower oil
1 tbsp chopped dill
6 hard-boiled eggs, peeled, halved and yolks carefully removed
Rye bread toast, to serve (optional)
Step 1
Place all the ingredients, apart from the cooked egg white halves but including the cooked egg yolks, in a food processor, making sure to squeeze out the excess milk from the bread, and process on high speed for 5–8 minutes until you get a smooth pâté. Taste for seasoning and acidity and adjust if needed, adding more salt, sugar or lemon juice.
Step 2
To make the devilled eggs, place the forshmak in a pastry bag fitted with a star tip (or with the corner snipped off) and pipe the mixture into the hollow of each egg white half.
Step 3
Alternatively, you can serve forshmak as a pâté on a toasted slice of rye bread, in which case you don’t need to remove the egg yolks from the whites. I love retro devilled eggs, so that would be my preferred way to serve forshmak at a dinner party.
Serves: 4-6
Excerpted from Salt & Time: Recipes from a Russian Kitchen by Alissa Timoshkina. Published in 2019 by Interlink Books. Used with permission from the publisher.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2019
