HOW TO MAKE GEFILTE FISH

(always stay close to what you want to escape from)

LET two carps 1kg. -1.5 kg. Each SWIM-FLOW in the tub

on the day of preparation

CATCH fish and

HIT each precisely on its head with

a mallet

REPEAT

REPEAT

“these fish have nine lives”

when dead and ready

CUT the fish stomach along sidewise

DISCARD entrails

“careful with that knife, when pricked the gall bladder might embitter the whole dish, you see?”

SEPARATE flesh from bones as much as you can

LEAVE few pieces aside – cut perpendicular to horizontal backbone (their centers will be filled later)

MAKE fish soup, boiling bones with carrots and onions

“that's the way we used to do it”

DISCARD bones but SAVE boiled vegetables and soup

GRIND the fish meat with 1-2-3 white onions and 1-2-3 stormy moon-hard-boiled eggs and green parsley leaves

all in the special old fashioned silvery meat grinder (attached to the table with a wooden piece and operated manually)

REMEMBER food processor won't render good results

THINK WHERE YOU COME FROM

My aunt a Galician, swore by the sweet version, my mother, who came from north east Poland,the savory. A DIVIDE.

I think “gemisht harain” (Yiddish for throw in, mix) is the right way to proceed but I'm never sure till I try

“it's the feeling”

THROW IN the fish mixture some sugar, ground pepper, salt, 1-4 raw eggs, some matza flour

MIX with HANDS

FEEL the texture and density

when right

FORM balls flattened in the SHAPE OF YOUR PALMS

FILL centers of cut up pieces

PLACE rendered and sieved through soup in a wide, flat pot

ARRANGE balls and filled fish pieces in concentric layers

DECORATE each piece with diagoanally sliced boiled carrot

COOK as long as it takes

slowly