Seafood
Moderate evidenceHerring
13.7 µg of vitamin B12 per 100 g — more than five times the daily reference. Omega-3 is 1.57 g, behind only salmon and mackerel.
Herring braised in tomato
The fish goes in last and cooks briefly over low heat. Long simmering costs you some of that 1.57 g of omega-3.
2 servings30 min
Ingredients
Method
Mince the garlic and leave it ten minutes. Allicin forms in that window.
Season the herring lightly with salt and pepper.
Heat the olive oil in a pan and cook the onion for five minutes.
Add the garlic and cook just thirty seconds more — longer turns it bitter.
Chop in the tomatoes, add the bay leaf and simmer gently for fifteen minutes. That is the sauce finished.
Lay the herring in, cover, and cook eight minutes over low heat. It is done when the flesh turns opaque.
Take it off the heat and rest two minutes before serving.
Cooking note
The order — fish last — is the whole recipe.
Herring's 1.57 g of omega-3 degrades with heat and oxygen. Simmered with the sauce from the start, it would sit through thirty minutes of heat and lose some of that. Finish the sauce first and give the fish eight minutes, and it gets only the heat it needs.
Pairing it with tomato has a reason too. The acidity cuts the fishy note, and the vitamin C alongside raises absorption of non-haem iron from whatever grains or vegetables share the table.
One caution: oily fish such as herring develops histamine when left at room temperature, and cooking does not destroy it. Keep it cold from the shop and cook it the same day.
Ingredients used here
Vegetables
Early researchTomato
Cooked beats raw here. Heat multiplies how much lycopene your body can actually absorb.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceOnion
Onion's antioxidant quercetin concentrates in the outer layers. Peeling two extra layers out of habit throws much of it away.
Vegetables
Moderate evidenceGarlic
The evidence for garlic points to a modest drop in blood pressure and cholesterol. The trick is to crush it and wait ten minutes before it hits the heat.