So apparently I’m Dutch now. Or something

Update: Fabulous Publisher Babe(tm) is a woman of a particular age, and the doctors recommend 4 oz of fatty fish every week to get all the right stuff in her diet. For the last however long, we’ve gone and gotten sushi at this fantastic place in Maple Valley, WA.

Sumo Sushi, on Highway 169 if you get this way. Fantastic sushi at pretty good prices.

But fresh sushi is kinda spendy, and we’re always trying to find ways to not necessarily spend so much money, especially as 2020 looks like it might be something of a down year in book sales. (This happens every time you get a presidential election, but things are going to get out of hand.)

I’d rather be proven wrong as a cynic than an optimist, at least here.

But fatty fish. Mackerel, sardines, herring, tuna, trout are all fatty. White and warm-water fish are less good, because they tend to have very little fat.

This week, we went into Costco. They had a 1kg package of herring in oil. I’ve never had herring in the store, because traditionally it is pickled with salt and a LOT of onions. I’m allergic to onions, so there.

But this was just hunks of herring. She needs it. I like to expand what goes in my flavor packs, so we bought. Opened it up tonight and counted out 9 steaks, not as wide as my hand but a little longer. Ballpark each one at about 4oz, which is what she should be eating each week.

Pulled out all four of the current flavor packs from the freezer and slipped a herring steak in to freeze with them, so I also have fatty fish. Currently: chicken thigh, duck confit, pork skin with fat and meat, beef marrow bones, goat chops, pork neckbones. Half a pound of that lovely offal I made a few weeks back. Add a slab of herring to that.

I cook it by letting it everything defrost overnight in the fridge, and then into the slow cooker. Add all the veggies from the freezer or fridge: broccoli, cauliflower, bok choi, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, carrots, cucumber, beet slaw, red cabbage, whatever else.

Olive oil. Avocado oil. Apple Cider Vinegar. Balsamic vinegar. Salt, pepper, cayenne, chili seasoning, garlic, dill, nutritional yeast, etc.

Cook for 24 hours on low, churning lightly every once in a while. Pour into casserole dish and left cool covered in fridge. Eight servings for breakfast. Cut out and nuke while making coffee.

But tonight, we just ate a steak raw. She mixed up some vinegar and sugar and it tasted an awful lot like the fish and chips I used to get when I was a kid, with malt vinegar over it.

Apparently, the Dutch eat herring raw. Like, pull out a steak and dip it in salt and onions and then eat. Dutch sushi, if you will.

But my diet keeps getting broader and better for me.

What are you doing to ensure you outlive all those bastards?

🙂