Kirsti O'Kelly's 'Silver Darlings'
Tuesday 29 April 2014
Kirsti O'Kelly's Silver Darlings are inspired by Kirsti's native Finland, where herrings are an everyday staple. We have wonderful herrings in our Irish waters but a lot of them are exported to Scandinavia, Europe, Japan and the Middle East and the Scandinavian-style pickled herrings in supermarkets here are, up to now, imported.
Having worked as a chef in Finland in the mid-Nineties, Kirsti went back to college to do a degree in 'restonimi', which she explains is a mix of food science and hospitality management.
She arrived in Ireland on St Valentine's Day 1999, thinking it would be a one-year adventure. Having worked in Dublin for a year, she then moved to Co Clare, working in hotel management. Then in 2004, fate took a hand and she met husband Eoin O'Kelly who works in Lyric FM.
They married in 2006 and now have two daughters, aged six and four, whom Kirsti describes as Ireland's youngest herring connoisseurs.
"I had always dreamed of setting up my own business and, in 2012, I finally 'hopped off the wheel' to take time out. I booked myself into a Start Your Own Business course with Limerick City Enterprise Board and soon took the final leap into the unknown and formed a company.
"The stall at Limerick's Milk Market has given me direct access to customers and an opportunity to get feedback on the products. I now have a good cohort of regular customers and it is this more than anything else that convinces me there can be a national and maybe even an international market for the food I make."
Having learned to marinate herrings according to traditional recipes passed on from her mother and grandmother, Kirsti's 'Silver Darlings' use a contemporary take on the traditional Nordic methods. Kirsti sources her fish from Mick O'Donnell of Island Seafoods in Killybegs, fresh Irish Atlantic herrings.
The fish is marinated in a combination of mild vinegars and spices, which dissolve the herring bones and keep the integrity of the fish flesh, allowing it to take on the subtle flavours of aromatic spices like mustard seeds, sandalwood, cinnamon, bay leaves, cloves. They are a great source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
In Nordic countries, marinated herrings are traditionally enjoyed as a starter and often paired with rye sourdough bread or baby boiled potatoes. They are also used in salads with pungent leaves, beetroot or boiled eggs and every conceivable kind of vodka or schnapps.
"While I use traditional methods, my original training was as a chef, so the first year of the company has been spent, in large part, inventing and developing new recipes and expanding and diversifying my range in numerous ways. Products like my beetroot and horseradish herring are my own invention and don't exist yet in my native Finland."
The biggest challenge so far, Kirsti says, has been time.
"Running a food business with one staff, plus a family with two small children and Eoin working full time, is a major task, so grandparents, along with all our neighbours, have picked up the child minding to support us.
"There have been other challenges, too. Herring is a fish that in some respects needs its image rehabilitated. Some people have an initial scepticism, which in most cases melts away with their first taste. Trying to politely explain to people that my foods are very different and much more refined and complex in their flavours than roll mops, with which they might be familiar, is another part of the challenge," explains Kirsti.
"As for my future plans, I will be conquering the Irish market yet for a while, but this product is ideal also for export as it has a nine-month shelf life and innovative flavours compared to typical pickled herring offerings.
"The first step to success is to reintroduce Irish herring to Irish people and Irish chefs. I have a few wonderful chefs who have discovered the possibilities with my herring products, such as Jess Murphy in Kai Galway and Tom Flavin in the Strand Hotel in Limerick. We have very recently started being distributed by Redmond's Fine Foods and the products have been taken by other restaurants, such as Eastern Seaboard in Drogheda and The Mustard Seed in Ballingarry," she says.
The retail range is now available from a number of outlets, including Avoca, Fallon & Byrne, Morton's, Caviston's, Urru and so forth. Prices range from €3.90 to €4.50.
"Silver Darlings has received wonderful support also from BIM and their Seafood Development Centre (SDC). The SDC team are highly qualified in food science and business to tailor a development plan just for me, and their sheer enthusiasm and belief in me made me realise how possible it really was to follow that plan and make this all actually happen."
www.silverdarlings.ie
FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT