Grandmother Rivka’s Gefilte Fish

February 4, 2012 Leave a comment

A recipe from Helene (Babad) Markus and Rivka Babad [deceased]

(Rough Draft Received from Helene on October 18, 2011)

Gefilte fish (/ɡəˈfɪltə fɪʃ/, from Yiddish: געפֿילטע פֿיש, “stuffed fish”) is a poached minced fish dish.

Background

More common since the Second World War are the Polish patties, similar to quenelles or fish balls, made from a mixture of ground-deboned fish mostly carp or pike. They are popular in the Ashkenazi Jewish community and are typically eaten on Shabbat and Holidays such as Passover, although it can be consumed throughout the year.Traditionally, carp, pike, mullet, or whitefish were used to make gefilte fish, but more recently other fish with white flesh such as Nile Perch have been used, and there is a pink variation using salmon. There are even vegan variations.

Ingredients require selecting a fish that is preferably at least 3 kilograms (6.6 lb.) in weight. Also required are 1 kilogram (2.2 lb.) of brown cooking onions, 200 milliliters (6.8 US fl. oz.) of vegetable oil (traditionally sunflower oil), salt, pepper, and five eggs.

The fish is deboned and the flesh mixed with ‘fill’ ingredients, including breadcrumbs or matzah meal, and fried onion. Cooking takes as much as 3 hours.

Due to the general poverty of the Jewish population in Eastern Europe, the ‘economic’ recipe for the above also may have included extra ground and soaked matzah meal or bread crumbs creating many more “spare” fish balls. This form of preparation eliminated the need for picking out fish bones at the table, and “stretched” the fish further, so that even poor, but often large, families could enjoy fish on Shabbat.

Variations — Gefilte fish may be slightly sweet or savory. Preparation of gefilte fish with sugar or black pepper is considered an indicator of whether a Jewish community was Galitzianer (with sugar) or Litvak (with pepper); hence the boundary separating northern from southern East Yiddish has been dubbed “the Gefilte Fish Line”. This is largely attributed to less availability of fresh fish in the inland areas before refrigeration, with the sugar used to ‘mask’ the sometimes less-than-fresh taste of the fish. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gefilte_fish.

Although a long and somewhat complex cooking process, the end product is well worth the effort – you never go back to commercial again.

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INGREDIENTS

4-5 Lb Carp
Add one large onion, medium chopped
7 whole almonds
1 stalk celery coarsely cut –or- use celery seed
1 tsp salt [ok to use Kosher Salt]
1 tsp pepper
1-½ Tbs sugar
1 Cup water <3 X>
7 almonds
1 slice dry white bread
1 medium onion
1 – 2 large eggs
A Dash or more of white pepper
1 Tbs sugar
A Dash salt

DIRECTIONS

Take a 4 – 5 lb. clean-gutted-descaled whole carp that you’ve skinned and boned. Keep these ‘offal’ parts for the jellied broth. In my family, whitefish was added to the carp when carp was too expensive.
Grind or chop the carp flesh to medium coarseness. We traditionally used a cast iron hand grinder, which, now to my regret, I tossed when it became too rusty to clean.
Add the washed fish bones, head + skin + head into a 4 quart pot to make the fish broth.
1. Add one large onion, medium chopped
2. Add 7 whole almonds
3. Add 1 stalk celery coarsely cut –or- use celery seed
4. Add 1 tsp salt [ok to use Kosher Salt]
5. Add 1 tsp pepper
6. Add 1-½ Tbs sugar
7. Add 1 Cup water <3 X> and let the broth simmer 1 hour
8. Pour off liquid and set a side for the broth – Repeat this step twice to extract the gelatin and captured flavors.
9. With an added cup of fresh water – simmer the skin and bones another hour, pour off liquid and KEEP the broth [Use a total of three cups of water for these three ‘extractions’.]
10. Strain the liquid and return to the pot – toss the boiled bones and remaining fish stuff.
Carp Balls/Klops – prepare these while the broth is boiling. Add to a food processor:
1. 7 almonds – to be ground
2. 1 – 2 large eggs
3. 1 slice dry white bread – to grind
4. 1 medium onion – to be ground, grated or chopped very fine — Oy Veh!, your poor eyes!
5. A Dash or more of white pepper
6. 1 Tbs sugar
7. A Dash salt
8. Add all the liquid and dry ingredients together use 2-3 Tbs water, if needed to create a soft dough-like mixture.
9. Into a large mixing bowl add ground fill mixture and ground carp meat – mix together and put into the refrigerator for the flavors to combine while the bones are being extracted
Cooking the Klops:
1. Heat the 3 Cups of strained liquid to boiling, just a gentle simmer
2. Add 1lb of baby carrots/or peel and slice large carrots to the broth.
3. Add fish mixture, which you have hand formed into balls. The mix is very soft so add it with a slotted spoon, to avoid their breaking. Put only a single layer at a time into the liquid
4. Slow boil/simmer one hour — transfer the cooked gefilte balls to small storage containers. - And prepare next batch of Carp mix [makes two or three total batches]
5. Once all the fish is cooked distribute the broth and cooked carrots into the containers + close tightly.

Tips

The Gefilte Fish will keep 1-2 weeks in the refrigerator, and of course the broth will jell just fine!
Serve with red horseradish or beet horseradish sauce if you can find it.
If not link to: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Beet-Horseradish-Sauce-109339