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
