All cuisines in the world have some kind of signature dish. What is the culinary calling card of the country. For Jews it is stuffed carp. And this dish is not only tasty, festive, beautiful, but also ritual. “Gefilte fish”, stuffed fish, is usually served at dinner. Why don’t we treat ourselves to this dish. It doesn't require many ingredients. The cooking process may seem laborious at first. But over time, when certain skills are developed, you will cope with it faster and faster. And it doesn’t have to be in Hebrew; it must be presented in its entirety. Cut into lengthwise pieces, it is also very tasty. This dish doesn’t have as many variations as Ukrainian borscht, but there are still some. In this article we will look at the Zhytomyr recipe.
Step one. Preparing the fish
“Gefilte fish,” Jewish-style stuffed carp, is not a dish of Sephardim, but of their more northern relatives. It especially took root in the so-called “Pale of Settlement” of the Russian Empire. Zhitomir is just such a city in which non-Jews constituted a national minority. There, the dish requires two fish - carp and pike. The sweetish meat of the latter will serve as a filling. Every self-respecting Zhytomyr housewife removes the skin from carp with a “stocking”. To do this, you must first clean the fish from scales, and then from the insides, making a neat cut on the belly. Then we wrap the carp in a plastic bag and beat it on both sides with a wooden mallet. Put it in the refrigerator overnight. This technique will allow us to easily remove the skin from the fish.
Step two. Removing skin with stockings
We are facing the most difficult stage of preparation. After all, whole Jewish-style stuffed carp should be served at the holiday table. This fish has tough skin, but we must also be careful. On the inside of the abdomen, not far from the cut through which we gutted the carp the day before, we make two new ones. Naturally, we leave the skin intact. We pick up the pulp with our fingers and begin to push it towards the back. Having reached the ridge, we cut off the spine from the head and tail with scissors. We turn the skin inside out like a stocking. The resulting meat is separated from the bones. The same can be done with pike. To make the task easier, you can boil this fish and remove the skin from it as necessary. We don’t throw away the bones—everything will do in a Jewish household.
Step three. Filling
Carp stuffed in Jewish style will be tastier if we fill it not with fish mousse, but with meat. Therefore, we pass carp and pike fillets through a meat grinder. And the meticulous housewives of Zhytomyr cut him finely with a knife. Next, we put into the filling everything that we throw into the minced meat for the cutlets: a finely chopped onion fried in oil, a bun soaked in milk, three eggs. Only spices need to be used for fish. This minced meat needs to be beaten well. We take it with our hand and forcefully throw it back into the bowl. This way the fish will be more tender, and the structure of the minced meat will not tear the skin of the carp. If it is still too tight, add milk. We stuff the carp without fanaticism. After all, when cooked, the filling will swell and inevitably tear the skin. You can make fish cutlets from the remaining minced meat another time. Let's sew up the fish's belly.
Step four. Cooking carp
We cut into thin slices a kilogram of onions, four or five carrots, one parsley, a quarter of a large celery root. In Zhitomir, the national dish “Gefilte fish” is called “carp stuffed in Jewish style with beets.” This root vegetable gives the jelly an amazing ruby color. We clean and cut four medium-sized beets into small slices, and one into three in a separate bowl. We take a large saucepan and line its bottom with washed onion peels (a Jewish housewife, as we remember, does not simply throw away anything). We place the bones and fins in a bag made of several layers of gauze, tie it with a long thread, the end of which will hang from the pan (for convenience, it can be tied to the handle). Cover the husks with half of the vegetables. Place carrots, onions, roots, and beets one by one. We place the carp on this. Cover with the remaining half of the vegetables. Pour water to the upper limit. We put it on fire. When it boils, skim off the foam, add peppercorns, bay leaves, and salt. Reduce heat to low and cook for two hours.
The final stage in preparing the dish “Jewish Stuffed Carp”
The recipe from Zhitomir suggests that the jelly should be ruby in color. To do this, add a little vinegar to the grated beets and dilute with a small amount (half a ladle is enough) of broth. Then we will carefully strain the liquid through cheesecloth. And squeeze the beet pulp to the last drop. This liquid is called “kvass” in Ukrainian cuisine and is widely used in the preparation of borscht. Here we observe an interesting phenomenon, how in the “Pale of Settlement” two national culinary traditions enriched each other. Pour the Ukrainian kvass into the broth in which the Jewish stuffed carp is cooked. Let it boil for just a minute and turn off the heat. If you cook longer, you won’t get a beautiful color.
Serving carp to the table
Let the broth cool. We pull out the gauze bag with the bones by the thread. Place some of the vegetables on a platter. Place the carp on top. Carefully remove the threads. Let's lean the head and tail against the carcass. Pour the strained broth over the fish. And put it in the refrigerator. And after a few hours we serve it. Carp stuffed in Jewish style, the photo of which looks very original, will be a signature dish and will amaze the guests. For convenience, you can cut the fish into portions. But this should be done in front of the amazed guests.
Fill the finished products with water and place on low heat. The broth is prepared for 1.5-2 hours. For a long time? Yes, but otherwise we won't get enough consistency. through a sieve, then pour back into the pan with the fish and bring to a boil.
Remove the cooked fish (the meat turns white) and place it in a deep dish. The bones should be removed if possible (with tweezers), without disturbing the shape of the product!
You can lightly sprinkle the fish with vinegar. Or lemon juice.
In order to make the broth transparent, beaten egg white is added to boiling water, which, when curdled, will collect all the sediment from the broth. After this, the liquid can be filtered again. And then don't forget to add gelatin!
Pour the broth over the fish, placed in a dish and decorated with vegetables and herbs. We put it in the refrigerator. After a couple of hours we get an appetizing, beautiful and very tasty snack!
As you can see, the recipe for carp aspic is quite simple. In this case, the preparation time for such a dish will be about 2.5 hours. It's worth working a little to really please your guests and loved ones! You can see jellied carp photo recipes here.
Spicy jellied carp
The secret of jellied carp recipe No. 2 is in preparing the broth, which is boiled with celery roots and parsley. The result will be a very tender aspic with a pleasant taste.
We have already reviewed a simple carp aspic recipe in detail, so we will further limit ourselves to general recommendations.
First, only the head and tail of the carp are cooked. After the water has boiled and you have removed the foam, add roots to the broth.
Cook for 20 minutes and you can add the remaining pieces.
To decorate the aspic, prepare eggs (hard-boiled) and carrots separately, which can be cut into different shapes. Eggs and vegetables are placed in a mold on top of the fish and filled with broth. After which the dish is cooled.
And further. A true master will definitely add his own twist in the form of original spices. For example, jellied fish goes well with sour berries - such as lingonberries or currants. Decorate the finished dish with them and be sure that your culinary imagination will be rated five plus!
Bon appetit!
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Stuffed carp is a holiday dish, and it is prepared according to a family recipe. Pieces of carp are stuffed, the backbone is not removed, during prolonged stewing the small bones become boiled, everything is gelled due to natural gelling agents.
We choose fresh fish from 1 kg, the recipe contains products for 1.3-1.5 kg of carp. If there is a large fish in the catch, we increase the amount of vegetables.
Fill the bun with milk.
We clean the fish, wash it, cut off the fins and tail - do not throw it away, this is a valuable raw material for jelly.
Cut the fish into portions.
The most difficult procedure is to use a thin knife to cut out “pockets” for minced meat - cut off the fillet.
We peel the onions and do not throw away the skins. Chop 1 onion and garlic cloves.
Add the fillet to the onion and chop.
Salt, pepper, add the egg and squeezed bun, mix everything. The egg is optional; the minced meat sets even without an egg.
Stuff the pieces, head and tail.
Place the husks, fins, spices on the bottom of the cauldron, and pour in oil.
Place root vegetables, cut into slices, head and tail.
Place a layer of vegetables on top of the fish.
Layer of fish - fill the pieces with the remaining minced meat, adjust with a wet hand. Neatly folded stuffed pieces of carp keep their shape.
Place the remaining vegetables on top. If you don't want beet-colored fish pieces, place all the beets down.
Gently pour cold water over it, trying to water between pieces so as not to disturb the stuffing. Place on the fire, let it boil, reduce the heat.
After an hour, salt and pepper the liquid, cook for another 1.5-2 hours, carefully add water if necessary.
Before serving, let the stuffed carp cool; remove from the cauldron only after it has cooled completely, otherwise the pieces will break easily. Fill with the resulting jelly.
Bon appetit!
Cut off the head of the carp and remove the gills. Cut the carp crosswise into pieces 6–7 cm thick. Place the head and tail in a saucepan, add 1 onion and 1 carrot, pour in 2.5 liters of cold water, bring to a boil, skim off the foam. Add bay leaf and peppercorns, salt, cook for 30–40 minutes. Strain.
While the broth is cooking, prepare the minced meat. Carefully fillet each piece of carp so that the skin and bones remain intact. Using scissors, cut off the bones, leaving about 1cm of bone at the base of the spine.
Cut off the crusts from the bun, soak the crumb in milk. Peel and finely chop the remaining onion. In a large frying pan, heat the vegetable oil with the addition of butter, fry the onion until golden brown, 10 minutes, cool.
Pass the carp fillet and 2/3 of the fried onions through a meat grinder. Add the bun soaked in milk, egg and yolk. Salt and pepper, knead well.
Place half of the remaining onion in a deep, wide saucepan. Take a piece of carp skin in your hand and place the minced meat on it so that part lies on the skin under the bone, and another part on top of it so that it can be easily covered with the top piece of skin. Form a “patty” and wrap it with skin. Make the rest of the cutlets. Make regular cutlets from the remaining minced meat and place them there. Cover with remaining fried onions. Carefully pour very hot broth down the side – it should completely cover the fish. Cook over low heat without a lid for 1 hour.
