Sturgeon aspic. Sturgeon aspic

Many dishes that decorate a festive table are difficult to prepare. One of them is aspic made from a noble fish: sturgeon. This appetizer takes several hours to prepare, so it is recommended to make it in advance, on the eve of the holiday, so that the filling has time to freeze perfectly.

Sturgeon jellied recipe

The cold appetizer is made using meat, head, cartilage, and skin of sturgeon fish. Jellied sturgeon is prepared both with and without gelatin. The washed fish is cut into pieces, boiled over low heat with onion, roots (parsley, celery), bay leaf, pepper, carrots. In 7-10 minutes. Before the end of cooking, add gelatin pre-soaked in water. A dish with mugs of boiled carrots, pieces of sturgeon meat, olives, eggs and herbs is poured with strained, cooled broth and sent to the refrigerator for several hours.

Sturgeon aspic with gelatin

• Time: 3.5-4 hours.
• Number of servings: 7 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 111 kcal/100 g.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: medium.

If you add 2-3 peas of allspice to the sturgeon aspic 5 minutes before it’s ready, the broth will become more aromatic. You can use frozen sprat, allowing the fish to thaw in advance at room temperature, or replace it with pieces of stellate sturgeon, sterlet, and salmon. The only drawback of the dish is that it takes a long time to prepare.

Ingredients:

• water – 2.5 l;
• sturgeon – 0.8 kg;
• fresh sprat – 0.4 kg;
• lumpfish caviar – 100 g;
• quail eggs – 7 pcs.;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• carrot – 1 pc.;
• parsley root – 1 pc.;
• celery root – 1 pc.;
• lemon – 1 pc.;
• bay leaf – 1 leaf;
• gelatin – 40 g;
• fresh herbs (parsley) – 10 g;
• ground white pepper, salt to taste.

Cooking method:

1. Pour gelatin into a glass of boiled water and leave to swell at room temperature for 30-40 minutes.
2. After thoroughly washing and cleaning, cut the sturgeon: cut off the head, tail, fins, pull out the backbone, and cut the fillet into large pieces. Fill the pan with the sturgeon's head and its bony parts (tail, fins, ridge) with clean cold water, add the sprat, cleaned of entrails and gills, and thoroughly washed.
3. Bring contents to a boil over medium heat. After descaling, add peeled vegetables (carrots, onions), washed celery root cut into 4 parts, whole parsley root. Add salt, bay leaf and pepper to taste. Cook the mixture uncovered for half an hour, skimming off the foam as necessary.
4. Remove vegetables and roots from the broth, remove the sprat with a slotted spoon. Strain the liquid itself through several layers of gauze and return it to low heat. Place pieces of sturgeon in it and cook without a lid for a quarter of an hour.
5. When the fish is boiled until cooked, remove it from the broth and, after cooling slightly, disassemble it into pieces. Add water with swollen gelatin to the broth, strained through cheesecloth. Stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved, without bringing the mixture to a boil (10-12 minutes). Turn off the heat, add salt and white pepper. Cool at room temperature (20-30 minutes, uncovered).
6. Cut hard-boiled quail eggs into halves, chop the lemon into half rings, and separate the washed and dried parsley into leaves. Place eggs, lemon slices, pieces of sturgeon meat, parsley into a beautiful aspic dish and fill it with slightly cooled broth.
7. Place the sturgeon aspic in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
8. When serving the finished dish, decorate it with lumpfish caviar and sprigs of fresh parsley (as in the photo below).

Without gelatin

• Time: 4.5 hours.
• Number of servings: 4 persons.
• Purpose: cold appetizer, aspic.
• Cuisine: Russian.
• Difficulty: medium.

The broth for aspic according to this recipe is viscous due to the natural stickiness of the oily skin, cartilage, and head part of the sturgeon. To check the finished filling, soak your fingers in a small amount of the cooled broth. If they become sticky, it is not necessary to add additional agar-agar or gelatin. You can serve the prepared aspic with mustard or horseradish.

Ingredients:

• water – 3-4 l;
• sturgeon heads – 1 kg;
• sturgeon without bones – 0.2 kg;
• onions – 1 pc.;
• carrots – 1 pc.;
• chicken egg – 1 pc.;
• garlic – 4 cloves;
• bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
• refined oil – 30 ml;
• fresh dill and parsley – 5 g each;
• salt - to taste;
• black pepper (peas) – 6-8 pcs.

Cooking method:

1. Chop the sturgeon heads, thoroughly washed and cleared of gills, into large pieces and fill with water (about 3 liters, so that the water covers the head by 10-15 cm). When the mixture boils, slightly reduce the heat, add a whole onion (without peels), peeled garlic cloves, and salt. Cook the heads for 3-3.5 hours until the cartilage becomes transparent. Add water periodically so that the head is completely covered with liquid. In 3-5 minutes. until done, add black peppercorns and bay leaves. After straining the hot broth through several layers of gauze, leave it to cool at room temperature for half an hour.
2. Cut the sturgeon fillet, washed and dried with paper towels, into pieces 3x5 cm and, stirring occasionally, fry over medium heat in a frying pan with hot oil until cooked (10-12 minutes).
3. In each serving bowl, place a quarter of a hard-boiled egg, 50 g of fried sturgeon, several slices of boiled, peeled carrots, a sprig of dill and parsley leaves. Fill the molds with the strained broth and place in the refrigerator to harden (it will take at least 2 hours).

With shrimp and green peas

• Time: 4.5-5 hours.
• Number of servings: 8 persons.
• Calorie content of the dish: 96 kcal/100 g.
• Purpose: cold appetizer, aspic.
• Cuisine: European.
• Difficulty: high.

When making a two-layer portioned aspic with seafood, experienced housewives prefer to cut the carrots into stars or triangles to make the appetizer look more original. You can decorate the edges of the bowls with lemon slices instead of adding them to the aspic.

Ingredients:

• water – 1.5 l;
• sturgeon – 0.4 kg;
• onion – 1 pc.;
• carrots – 1 pc.;
• shrimp – 32 pcs.;
• quail eggs – 8 pcs.;
• canned peas – 2 tbsp. l.;
• pitted olives – 16 pcs.;
• lemon – 1 pc.;
• bay leaf – 2 pcs.;
• gelatin – 15 g;
• allspice peas – 6-8 pcs.;
• salt - to taste;
• fresh herbs - a few sprigs.

Cooking method:

1. After thoroughly washing the sturgeon, cut it into pieces and fill with cold water. Add a whole peeled onion and allspice peas to the pan. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat with the lid closed. Remove scale as it appears.
2. After boiling, cook the fish over medium heat without a lid for a third of an hour, then add salt and bay leaf. After 10 minutes, turn off the stove and let the broth brew, covering it with a lid, for another 10-15 minutes.
3. Separate the cooled sturgeon meat from the skin, bones and divide it into small pieces with your hands.
4. Pass the broth several times through gauze folded in 4-6 layers and place on low heat.
5. Pre-filled for 45-50 minutes. gelatin, pour into a saucepan, slightly heat over low heat, without bringing to a boil (8-10 minutes). Then pour the liquid through a strainer into the fish broth, mix thoroughly and remove from the stove. Leave the mixture to cool at room temperature for 20 minutes.
6. Pour cold water over the shrimp and boil them. When the seafood boils, add salt, after 3-4 minutes turn off the stove and cover the pan with a lid. Let stand for a minute or two, drain the water through a colander. Peel the cooled shrimp.
7. In each of the eight serving bowls, place: several pieces of sturgeon meat, ½ boiled quail egg, ½ lemon wedge, 2 peeled shrimp, 1 olive, 2-4 peas. Fill the bowls almost halfway with broth and place them in the refrigerator for 1.5 hours.
8. Having taken out the molds with the frozen jelly, place on their surface the rest of the sturgeon, ½ quail egg, 2 shrimp, 1 olive, boiled carrots (peeled and cut into circles or stars), 2-4 peas.
9. After filling the mold with broth, place the aspic in the refrigerator until completely solidified - for 1-1.5 hours.

Step 1: Process the fish and pull out the vizig.

First, cut off the dorsal fin of the sterlet, then the dorsal bugs. Carefully scrape off the belly and side bugs. Then cut off the fish's head along with the pectoral fins. Carefully remove the gills and eyes. To make it easier to remove the vizig, make a cut inside the fish along the cartilaginous spine, starting from the cut of the head, 3-4 cm thick. After this, cut the skin around the caudal fin and break the spine in this place. Hold the tail of the fish in your left hand and pull out the vizig with your right.

Step 2: Cut up the sterlet.

Now place the fish with its back up, cut the belly, starting from the head to the tail. Carefully remove the entrails. Then cut the sterlet in the middle between the fat layer and the vertebral cartilage along the entire fish into two equal halves. Scald the prepared fish with hot water, about 90°C. Keep it in water for about 1-2 minutes. Then scrape off small bone scales and bugs. Rinse the fish under cold running water, then trim off the vertebral and costal cartilages. Then carefully cut the fish fillet from the skin. Scald the fish again with hot water, then rinse with cold water.

Step 3: Poach the sterlet fillet.

Now take a saucepan, preferably with a thick bottom. Place the fish in it and fill it halfway with clean water. Add salt to the pan to your taste, pour in half a glass of white wine. Cover the pan tightly with a lid. Then simmer the fish over low heat. approximately 12-15 minutes. After this, remove the fish and place it in a separate bowl. The broth remaining after the fish will be used to make jelly.

Step 4: Prepare the broth.

Rinse the sterlet fins, head and skin under running water, then scald with hot water, then rinse again with cold water. Now place all the prepared fish remains in a saucepan, add 3-4 glasses of water, place on high fire, bring to a boil, then skim off any foam that has formed on the surface, reduce the heat and continue to simmer at a low simmer, approximately 1.5-2 hours. At this time, peel the onion, rinse it and cut it into 4-6 pieces. Wash the parsley as well, then chop finely. Approximately in 40 minutes until ready, add the onion and parsley to the pan. Also add bay leaf and pepper and stir. Mix the finished broth with the remaining broth after the sterlet. Fold clean gauze into thirds and strain the broth through it.

Step 5: Clarify the broth.

If the broth ends up not being very clear, you will need to lighten it with egg white. This is done as follows. Break the eggs into a clean bowl, separating the whites from the yolks, setting the latter aside. Add five times the amount of cold broth to the whites (you can use clean water). Then whisk thoroughly and gradually add to the hot broth ( not boiling). Stir constantly while doing this. Then cover the bowl with the mixture, place over medium heat, and bring to a boil. Add a little salt, reduce heat and leave some more for 10 minutes so that the broth has time to settle and the egg whites have settled. After, without shaking broth, strain through cheesecloth. Add pre-soaked gelatin to it. Stirring constantly, allow the gelatin to dissolve completely.

Step 6: Lay the filler.

Cool the finished broth a little. Then pour it in a thin layer into a jellied mold and place it in the refrigerator to set, about an hour. Place pre-boiled and shaped carrots, lemon slices and parsley sprigs on the frozen layer of jelly. Place pieces of fish on top, pour fish jelly. To prevent vegetable decorations from floating up when pouring jelly, they must first be dipped in the jelly that has not yet hardened, and then placed in the mold. Keep in the refrigerator until the jelly hardens. After that, fill in ( in 2-3 doses) fish with jelly so that it is completely covered with it. Put it in the refrigerator preferably all night.

Step 7: Serve the sterlet aspic.

When the sterlet aspic has solidified well, cut it into portions, then place it on a fish-shaped oval serving dish. Use the tail and head as decoration. Around the sterlet, beautifully arrange (you can use piles) olives, apples and lemons, pre-cut into thin slices, as well as radishes, pickled sweet peppers and parsley. Enjoy your meal!

- You can decorate this dish in a wide variety of ways. Use your imagination and experiment!

- - For those who do not yet know what poaching fish is, let me explain that it is the same cooking, only in a small amount of liquid. By the way, poached fish turns out much tastier than regular boiled fish. The whole point is that, in this way, the nutrients contained in the fish are less lost in the broth.

- Dry white wine can be replaced with the juice of half a lemon.

- - Gelatin should be soaked in a ratio of 1:5 with water. After which it must be left for about 1 hour so that it has time to swell.

Peel the sturgeon, trim and cut into pieces. Soak gelatin in a small amount of water.

Clean small fish, wash them, remove gills. Place the sturgeon along with the head, tail, fins and spine in a saucepan with cold water and bring to a boil. Remove the foam, add carrots, onions, parsley root, celery tuber cut into 2-4 parts, bay leaf and salt. Cook for 30 minutes, periodically removing the foam.

Strain the broth into a clean saucepan, add pieces of sturgeon and cook over low heat for 15 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, carefully transfer the fish to a plate.

Peel the eggs and cut them in half. Wash the parsley, dry it and separate it into leaves. Cut the lemon into half rings. Place pieces of sturgeon and lemon, boiled eggs and parsley on a platter.

Strain the broth through 3 layers of gauze, add the swollen gelatin and heat over low heat, stirring all the time, until the gelatin dissolves. Remove from heat, add salt and pepper. Cool slightly and pour into a dish with fish. Place in the refrigerator until set, 2 hours. Decorate the finished aspic with lumpfish caviar and serve.