Tarama with Kalamata olives and chives

Zazulete Ynn Anuca Romanta Ion

Fish roe tarama (fish eggs salad) is a traditional Romanian appetizer usually found on most holidays and festive tables. The traditional version, that we will prepare some other time, is made with carp or pike roe and lots of onion. Since I prefer ocean fish taste and a more delicate flavoring to the fish roe salad, allowing for a better excursion to the shores of imaginary seas, I often like to indulge in a twist of the traditional recipe by using herring eggs. Nutritious, fast and easy,. this appetizer will bring you a boost of necessary proteins and oils and makes for a quick and delicious addition to any festive table.

It takes only 10 minutes to prepare, so fasten your belts and mouth watering!

INGREDIENTS

100g salted herring fish roe (or fish eggs of your liking)
1 slice of bread
5-6 tbs sunflower oil
1/2 medium lemon
7-8 pitted Kalamata olives (or other olives of your liking, cut in small chunks)
​chives

(Optional) toast 

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Make sure the salted fish roe is fresh: fresh fish roe are still crunchy and keep their shape and glow, while older fish roe tends to liquefy.

Put 1/3 of the fish eggs aside, we will add them in the end, to make sure the tarama salad keeps the crunchiness of the unprocessed eggs.

Put the slice bread in water and let it moist until soaked. Squeeze the water out of the bread, very well, until it becomes a ball of squishy bread dough.

In a mixing bowl, add the fish roe, the bread (break the moist bread with your fingers, in crumbs, to add it to the mix) and 1/2 of the half lemon juice. We will now make a fish roe "mayonnaise": use your mixer and mix the ingredients by gradually adding the vegetable oil. Add one tablespoon of sunflower oil at a time. It's quite quick, it should take just a few minutes to mix it all.

You know the tarama is ready when it is "stiff", just like mayonnaise.

Add the rest of the half lemon juice and mix. 

Now it is time to put in the fish eggs we left aside and to mix them in, gently, with a (preferably wooden) spoon.

Cut the pitted olives into small chunks and add them in the tarama. 

Serve with toast and garnish with minced chives.

The color and flavor of chives give me a surge of happiness, for we know spring is here! Have a green, joyful one!