(Parsley)-Banana Herring

Inspired by the TGWRT#2 event (although much too late to really participate) I decided to try this modification of one of my favourite recipes. Banana Herring is - as far as I have been able to figure out - an Icelandic speciality and seeing as Iceland is probably one of the few places on earth where one has access to both locally produced herring AND bananas I guess it does sound reasonable. When I first read about this particular combination, I was intrigued - banana and pickled herring? - so intrigued I decided to try it out and found that it really tasted good. So far, everybody whom I've convinced to try it have agreed that it works a lot better than it sounds.

Pickled herring is of course a speciality from Scandinavia, but I've learned that it's possible to get it at least as far away from home as southern California. Based on other people's experience with the parsley I decided to simply make my standard banana herring and then add fresh, coarsely chopped parsley just before serving.

Ingredients:
- 4 tbsp sour cream
- 4 tbsp mayonaise
- 4 tsp honey mustard
- 1 diced banana
- paprika to taste
- pickled herring

Stir the sour cream, mayonaise, honey mustard and paprika together with a spoon. Then add the diced banana and pieces of pickled herring (making sure to get the herring into the mixture) and let it sit in the fridge for at least one night.

Serve on whole-grain dark rye bread (again, this can be obtained far from Scandinavia) and sprinkle with fresh, coarsely chopped parsley.

VERDICT: While the parsley certainly added a very nice look to the banana herring, I have to admit that I couldn't really taste it. So, from a tasting point of view the parsley didn't really add anything to the banana herring.