Spiced sprat, with black bread and melting egg

Oh, how I dreamed of estonian spiced sprats, while I was travelling around the world for a year. And all the other estonians we met on the way, did the same. So as you can see, it is something really estonian to eat - spiced sprats with black bread. The process of making it is such a joy - all the aromas of the spices that you crush with your mortar and pestle make your tastebuds water already from the beginning. The traditional version is to use the real sprats (Sprattus sprattus), but sometimes they are hard to get. Then you can replace them with the baltic herring, like I did this time, the result is as wonderful. If possible, buy fresh fishes and fillet them yourself, it will be so much more juicy afterwards. If you buy the fish that has been already filleted before, then add a few drops of oil between every layer of fishes. You need:

500 gr sprat or baltic herrin fillets

1 ts ground black pepper

1 ts ground allspice

0,5 ts of ground clove

0,3 ts of ground nutmeg

0,5 ts of ground cinnamon

0,3 ts of ground mustard seeds

1 ts of ground coriander seeds

2 tbs of salt

1 ts of sugar

2 laurel leaves

The best way to break all the peppers, allspices, cloves etc, is to use mortar and pestle, then they don´t have the concistency of a flour. Mix all the ingredients except the fish. Take a container of half a litre. Break one laurel leaf to pieces and put on the bottom. Cover with one layer of fish filets, skin side facing the bottom. Cover with a thin layer of spice mixture. Add another layer of fishes and spice mixture. Continue until all the fish is in the container, cover with the other laurel leaf. Put alid on the container and put something heavy on it to add pressure. Let it stay in cool place overnight.

To serve, take a slice of black bread, put some good butter on, add a few spiced sprats and half a halfboiled egg (I usually boil them for 6 minutes and add the eggs when the water is boiling already).

Vürtsikilu musta leiva ja poolkõvaks keedetud munaga

Vaja läheb:

500 gr kilu- või räimefileed

1 tl purustatud musta pipart

1 tl purustatud vürtspipart

0,5 tl purustatud nelki

0,3 tl riivitud muskaatpähklit

0,5 tl jahvatatud kaneeli

0,3 tl purustatud sinepiseemneid

1 tl purustatud koriandriseemneid

2 spl soola

1 t suhkrut

2 loorberilehte

Parim viis kõiki vürtse puustada on minu meelest uhmri ja nuia abil, muidu on tulemus liialt jahusarnane. Sega kõik maitseained kokku. Võta pooleliitrine anum. Purusta kergelt üks loorberileht ja aseta anuma põhja. Kata ühe kilukihiga, nahk allapoole. Puista peale vürtsisegu nii, et kõigile fileedele saaks ühtlaselt. Lisa järgmine kiht kalasid ja vürtsisegu. Jätka kuni kõik kalad on purgid ja aseta kõige peale teine purustatud loorberileht.