Rice with Smoked Herrings, Peppers and Scallions
Rice with Smoked Herrings, Peppers, and Scallions is a delicious dish to have in your cooking repertoire. It is a tasty one-pot dish or side dish recipe that can be served cold or hot. This dish is the right combination of starch, smoked fish, and herbs.
Smoked Herring pieces are sauteed with Noubess Hot and Spicy Original Sauce and then mixed with sliced scallions, diced sweet mini sweet peppers, and chopped parsley. The fish mixture is then mixed with cooked white rice to give you a complete meal.
I am very proud of myself for creating this delicious rice dish. Sometimes it is incredibly worth it when you buy food in bulk. You will never find one smoked herring fillet packaged. Therefore you must be ready to create multiple dishes if you will not be cooking the entire package in one day. One pack may include 5 to 10 fillets depending on the size of the packaging.
What is Smoked Herrings
If you remember, a few months ago, I shared a blog article about What you need to know about Smoked Herring. Take a look at the article to understand why preparation is crucial entirely.
Because smoked herring is very salty, it is necessary to soak the fillets overnight or for a few hours before cooking. This process will not remove all the salt but most of it. If you add salt to desalted smoked herrings for one reason or another, some people say that your dish will be salty. It is better to add a salt-free seasoning like Noubess Fish & Seafood Seasoning, Salt-Free.
This particular seasoning does not contain any salt. This salt-free seasoning blend contains black pepper, rosemary, parsley, dill, citric acid, garlic, lemon peel, and onion—the perfect combination for seafood.
What it Rice with Smoked Herrings
This Rice with Smoked Herrings is one of my favorite recipes in my collection. I love a good rice dish, and this one reminds me of the Caribbean, the way we cook.
Regardless of the Caribbean Island or Country, rice is a huge part of the cuisine and a staple food cooked in many different ways. Rice and beans, one of the well-known dishes in the Caribbean, are cooked in various ways everywhere. It’s usually seasoned with salt, garlic, onion (for simple rice dish), chicken bouillon, or Maggi cube (a type of seasoning salt) if you’re mixing the rice with other ingredients.
Some rice recipes are cooked with peas, beans, leafy vegetables, and even carrots. Rice is also part of the grains’ dessert family. Rice pudding, a comforting dish, is a traditional breakfast or supper dish in the Caribbean.
The most popular rice dish is white rice. White rice is the basis or foundation for many dishes. White rice is sometimes cooked plain and with oil and salt only. Other white rice recipes include onion, garlic, and even scallion. These ingredients add flavor to the rice, making it even more flavorful.
This recipe does include white rice cooked with garlic. The aroma of the garlic blends very well with the smoked herring mixture. Earthy, flavorful, and not salty with a hint of smokiness from the herrings.
This rice version will allow you to combine other herbs, vegetables, and even different types of smoked or dried fish. Making this recipe with a kind of seafood is recommended because of the perfect marriage of flavors.
The recipe
As mentioned earlier, I used smoked herrings, scallions, sweet mini peppers, and Noubess Original Hot Sauce.
The herrings are soaked the night before. One good tip is to rinse the fillets before soaking and after soaking. The fillets are sliced into smaller pieces, cooked for 5 minutes, drained, and patted dry with a towel paper. The pieces are browned in oil and Noubess Original Hot Sauce.
The rice is seasoned and cooked with fresh garlic and no salt. The herring mixture is then mixed with the cooked rice, and fresh herbs and sweet peppers are added for flavor and vibrant colors. I chose different colors because we eat our eyes first. So let’s make our meals not only delicious but pleasing to the eyes as well.
While this rice recipe is a complete meal, it can be served as a side dish. As a side dish, I would serve it with Creole Snapper or even Creole Chicken in Sauce. And let’s not forget the greens. How about Sauteed Asparagus?
Rice with Smoked Herrings, Peppers and Scallions
Ingredients
- 2 cups white rice
- 3 cups `water
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp garlic crushed
- 2 – 3 smoked herring fillets soaked overnight or at least for 12 hours
- 2 cups of water to boil fillets with ¼ tsp vinegar boil for 5 minutes let cool – pat dry
- 1/2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ tsp Noubess Original Hot and Spicy Sauce
- 1/2 cup sweet peppers diced, a mixture of red, orange or yellow
- 2 scallions sliced
- 2 tbsps parsley chopped
- a few drops of lemon juice optional
Instructions
Soak the smoked herrings and pre-cook
- Remove any small bones from the herring fillets, rinse under cold running water and place in a large bowl. Fill up the bowl with water and let fillets soak overnight or for 12 hours at least, changing the water at least one time
- Remove the fillets from the soaking water and give them a quick rinse under running water.
- Cut the fillets in small pieces and add in a pot with 2 cups of water and 1/2 teaspoon white vinegar. Bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes only. Remove from water and place in a bowl or plate lined with a paper towel to remove any remaining water. Set aside.
- Remove from water and place in a bowl or plate lined with a paper towel to remove any remaining water. Set aside.
Prepare to rice
- Heat the 2 tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high in a dutch oven or heavy 4-quart round pan. Add garlic and cook for a few seconds, add water, salt(optional) and bring to a boil.
- Wash the rice with water at least 2 times. Drain well through a strainer.
- Carefully add the rice to the boiling water, stir once and spread evenly with a spoon. Cook uncovered until water evaporates. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan tightly, and cook undisturbed for 20 minutes.
Prepare smoked herrings
- In a skillet, under medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add Noubess Original Hot Sauce. Spread hot sauce and add herrings pieces. Gently pan-fry the pieces until they turn a deep brown color, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and place in a bowl
- Add scallions and peppers and the chopped parsley to the bowl and mix well.
Assemble
- In a large bowl, add cooked rice and gently fluff with a large fork. Add herrings mixture and mix gently with rice.
- Place in a serving bowl or platter with lemon wedges if you want. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Nutrition info is automatically generated and provided as a courtesy and as an estimate only.
