Carp stuffed in Hebrew: Zhitomir recipe with step by step instructions

In all the kitchens of the world there is some kind of a crown dish. What is the culinary business card of the country. The Jews have it - stuffed carp. And this dish - not only is it tasty, festive, beautiful, so also ritual. "Gefilte fish", stuffed fish, it is accepted to serve on the Jewish New Year. Why do not we treat ourselves to this dish. Ingredients for it is required not too much. The preparation process may seem at first time-consuming. But over time, when certain skills are developed, you will cope with it faster. And not necessarily carp, stuffed in Hebrew, should be served entirely. Cut into longitudinal pieces, it is also very tasty. Variation of this dish is not so much as that of Ukrainian borsch, but they do exist. In this article we will consider the Zhytomyr recipe.

Step one. Fish preparation

"Gefilte fish," carp stuffed in Hebrew - a dish not of Sephardim, but of their more northern relatives. Especially it took root in the so-called "Pale of Settlement" of the Russian Empire. Zhytomyr is just a city in which non-Jews were a national minority. There for the dish requires two fish - carp and pike. Sweetish meat of the latter will serve as a filling. Any self-respecting Zhytomyr mistress removes the skin from carp "stocking". To do this, you must first clean the fish from the scales, and then from the entrails, making a neat cut on the belly. Then we wrap the carp in a cellophane bag and cut it off from both sides with a wooden hammer. Let's put it in the fridge for the night. This technique will allow us to easily remove the skin from the fish.

Step two. Skinning of the skin

We are facing the most difficult stage in cooking. After all, to the festive table must be served carp stuffed in Hebrew entirely. This fish is characterized by strong skin, but we must also be careful. From the inside of the abdomen, not far from the incision through which we have gutted the carp the day before, we make two new ones. Naturally, the skin is left whole. We catch the fingers of the flesh and start pushing it to the back. After reaching the ridge, with scissors we cut off the spine from the head and tail. We twist the skin like a stocking. The resulting meat is separated from the bones. The same can be done with a pike. To facilitate the task, you can boil this fish and remove the skin from it as necessary. We do not throw out the bones - everything will fit in the Jewish economy.

Step three. Filling

Carp, stuffed in Hebrew, will taste better if we fill it not with fish mousse, but meat. Therefore, the carp and pike fillets are passed through a meat grinder. And meticulous Zhitomir mistresses finely cut him with a knife. Further in the filling we put everything that we throw into minced meat: fried in oil finely chopped onion, soaked in milk roll, three eggs. Only spices need to be used for fish. This stuffing should be well repulsed. We take it by hand and forcefully throw it back into the bowl. So the fish will turn out more tenderly, and the structure of forcemeat will not break the skin of the carp. If it is still too tight, we add milk. We stuff carp without fanaticism. After cooking, the filling will swell and inevitably break the skin. From the remaining stuffing, you can make fish cutlets another time. Sew a fish abdomen.

Step four. Carp cooking

We cut thin kilograms of onions, four or five pieces of carrots, one parsley, a quarter of a large celery root. In Zhytomyr, the national dish "Gefilte Fish" is called "carp, stuffed in Hebrew with beetroot". This root gives the jelly an amazing ruby color. We clean and cut with small plates four medium beets, and one three in a separate bowl. We take a large saucepan and cover its bottom with the washed bulb of the bulbs (the Jewish mistress, as we remember, does not just throw anything away). Bones and fins are put in a bag of several layers of gauze, we 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. We take turns carrots, onions, roots, beets. Put the carp on it. We cover with the remaining half of the vegetables. We pour water on the upper boundary. We put on the fire. When the boil, remove the foam, throw pepper peas, bay leaf, salt. Reduce the heat to a minimum and cook for two hours.

The final stage in the preparation of the dish "Carp stuffed in Hebrew"

The recipe from Zhitomir suggests that the jelly should be ruby-colored. To do this, in grated beets, add a little vinegar and bred a small amount (half a ladle is enough) broth. Then we will carefully drain the liquid through the cheesecloth. And press the beetroot cake to the last drop. This liquid is called in the Ukrainian cuisine "kvass" and is widely used in cooking borsch. Here we see an interesting phenomenon, as in the "Pale of Settlement" two national culinary traditions enriched each other. Ukrainian kvass poured into broth, which is brewed carp, stuffed in Jewish. We let him puke for a minute and turn off the fire. If you cook longer, you will not get a beautiful color.

Carp feeding on the table

Let the broth cool down. For the string we stretch a gauze pouch with bones. We lay out a portion of the vegetables on a platter. We place carp from above. Carefully remove the thread. Let's put a head and tail on the carcass. Fill the fish with filtered broth. And put in the refrigerator. And after a few hours we serve it on the table. Carp, stuffed in Jewish, whose photo looks very original, will be a crown dish and will amaze the guests. For convenience, you can cut the fish portionwise. But this should be done before the eyes of amazed guests.