Read 1,000 Jewish Recipes Online
Authors: Faye Levy
1,000 Jewish Recipes (198 page)
1 teaspoon sugar (optional)
2 ribs celery, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, grated
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (optional)
1
â
4
cup matzo meal
Paprika, to taste
1.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9-inch square baking pan.
2.
Grind fish in 2 batches in a food processor until very fine. Return half the fish to food processor and add 1 egg, half the chopped onions,
3
â
4
teaspoon salt,
1
â
4
teaspoon pepper, and
1
â
2
teaspoon sugar, if using. Process to thoroughly mix. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with remaining fish, egg, onion, salt, pepper, and sugar. Transfer to bowl and mix with first batch. Stir in celery, carrots, oil if using, and matzo meal.
3.
Spoon fish into prepared pan. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and bake 15 minutes. Uncover and bake 30 more minutes or until set. Serve hot or cold, in slices.
This is a delicate French style fish terrine that is enriched with cream. The fish loaf is made of sole and dotted with salmon. Unlike most gefilte fish loaves, this one is baked in a water bath so it will cook very gently.
Serve this loaf hot or cold on festive occasions. A salad of baby greens is a perfect accompaniment. Don't overpower the subtle taste of the fish with the strong type of horseradish usually served with gefilte fish. Instead, accompany it with creamy
White Horseradish Sauce
,
Fresh Tomato Vinaigrette
, or French spinach-watercress sauce (see
Baked Halibut with French Spinach-Watercress Sauce
).
1
1
â
2
pounds sole fillets
1
â
2
pound salmon fillet
3 large egg whites
1 teaspoon salt
1
â
2
teaspoon white pepper
Freshly ground nutmeg, to taste
1 cup heavy cream
1.
Remove any skin or bones from sole and salmon. Cut sole into 1-inch pieces. Cut salmon in thin strips and pat them dry.
2.
Puree half the sole in a food processor until very fine. Add 1 egg white and process until blended. Remove to a bowl. Puree remaining sole and a second egg white. Leave mixture in processor. Return first mixture to processor. Add third egg white, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Process until thoroughly blended and very smooth. Transfer to a bowl, cover, and refrigerate 30 minutes. Refrigerate work bowl of processor also.
3.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter a 6-cup terrine mold or loaf pan. Line base of pan with wax paper or parchment paper, then butter liner. Butter another sheet and reserve.
4.
Return cold fish mixture to cold food processor. With machine running, gradually pour in cream through feed tube in a slow, steady stream. Adjust seasoning; if adding more, process until mixed. Transfer mixture to a bowl.
5.
Spoon about one third of sole mixture into mold. Pack mixture in mold well, pushing it into corners. Arrange half the salmon strips lengthwise on the mixture without letting them touch the edges of the pan. Top them carefully with another third of the sole mixture. Arrange remaining salmon strips length- wise on top. Cover with remaining sole mixture. Smooth top. Tap mold on table to be sure mixture is packed down.
6.
Cover with reserved buttered paper, then with 2 layers of foil, sealing top around edge of pan. Set mold in a larger pan and fill pan with very hot water about halfway up sides of mold. Bake about 35 minutes or until set; a skewer inserted into mixture and left in for 10 to 15 seconds should come out hot to touch. Remove mold from pan of water and leave about 10 minutes before unmolding; or refrigerate, if serving cold.
7.
To serve, unmold loaf onto a platter or board; drain off any liquid. Cut carefully into
1
â
2
-inch slices with a sharp knife.
To make store-bought gefilte fish taste more like homemade, many cooks doctor up its flavor. My aunt Sylvia Saks first told me how to do this. You cook the fish patties in a tasty, quickly made, homemade vegetable broth.
Use any kind of gefilte fish you like. If you're using sweet gefilte fish, you can season the broth with a pinch of sugar, or more if you like. Serve it with its traditional partner, red horseradish made with beets.
2 large carrots, sliced
2 large onions, cut into thick slices
3 ribs celery, halved
Two 24-ounce jars gefilte fish (total 12 to 14 pieces)
Salt and white pepper, to taste
1.
Combine carrots, onions, and celery in a large saucepan. Add liquid from gefilte fish. Bring to a simmer. Add gefilte fish patties and enough water to just cover them. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Cover and cook over low heat 30 minutes. Adjust seasoning. Uncover and let cool.
2.
If you're preparing fish for serving later, transfer patties carefully to a bowl or to clean jars and add enough carrot slices to garnish them. Strain remaining broth and pour it over fish. Cover and refrigerate. Serve fish patties garnished with carrot slices.
One of the lines in a popular, humorous Israeli song about falafel is that if it's made by an Ashkenazic Jew (instead of an "authentic" Yemenite Jew), it comes out tasting like gefilte fish! So my husband and I found it very funny when we saw a dish labeled "fish falafel" on the menu of an Israeli eatery in a Jewish neighborhood in Paris. Curious, we ordered it. Soon we stopped laughing; they tasted really good! These "falafel" were basically fried gefilte fish balls seasoned like falafel and served in pita bread.
Serve these fish patties like falafel, with tahini sauce and hot sauce or with
Cilantro Salsa
.
2 pounds halibut or sea bass fillets
2 large eggs
1 large onion, chopped
6 large cloves garlic, chopped
1
â
4
cup small sprigs fresh cilantro, chopped
2
1
â
2
teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1
1
â
2
teaspoons salt
1
â
2
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
About 1
1
â
4
cups dry bread crumbs
About 6 cups vegetable oil (for frying)
1.
Remove any skin from fish. Grind fish in 2 batches in a food processor until very fine. Return half the fish to food processor and add 1 egg, half the chopped onions, garlic, and cilantro, 1
1
â
4
teaspoons cumin,
1
â
2
teaspoon coriander,
3
â
4
teaspoon salt, and
1
â
4
teaspoon pepper. Process to thoroughly mix. Transfer to a large bowl. Repeat with remaining fish, egg, onion, garlic, cilantro, and seasonings. Transfer to bowl and mix with first batch. Stir in 3 tablespoons bread crumbs. If mixture is wet, stir in more bread crumbs, 1 tablespoon at a time. Knead thoroughly to mix very well.
2.
Put remaining bread crumbs in a dish for coating fish. To shape the fish falafel, take about
1
â
4
cup of mixture and flatten it into smooth patty. Roll it in bread crumbs; pat them on if necessary so patty is evenly coated.
3.
In a deep fryer, heavy saucepan, or large, deep skillet, heat oil to about 350°F. Add some of patties, leaving room to turn them. Do not drop them into oil from high up so oil won't splash. Fry 4 to 5 minutes, turning once, until they are deep golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot or warm.
My cousin Mildred Greenberg gave me the idea for this recipe. She makes it using gefilte fish mixture. The fish has a completely different taste when it is sautéed instead of being poached. You can use any kind of fish. Either grind fillets yourself or buy ground fish if you will be using it right away. For quick fish latkes, Mildred thaws frozen, ready-to-cook gefilte fish mixture and adds eggs and matzo meal to it.
1 pound ground salmon, halibut, or other fish
1 large egg
1 medium onion, minced
1 teaspoon dried dill
3
â
4
teaspoon salt
1
â
4
teaspoon freshly ground pepper
About 1
1
â
4
cups matzo meal
About
1
â
2
cup vegetable oil
1.
Mix fish, egg, and onion in a large bowl. Add dill, salt, pepper, and 2 tablespoons matzo meal and mix well. Mixture should be fairly firm. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons more matzo meal if needed; amount depends on how firm the fish is.
2.
Line a tray with paper towels. Have a baking sheet ready for keeping latkes warm. Put 1 cup matzo meal on a plate for breading fish. Moisten your hands and shape fish mixture into balls, using about
1
â
4
cup for each. Flatten each to a patty and roll in matzo meal, coating it evenly.
3.
Heat
1
â
2
cup oil in a deep, large, heavy skillet. Add a few latkes to pan; do not crowd them. Fry over medium heat 3 or 4 minutes per side, or until browned and cooked through. Use 2 slotted spatulas to turn them carefully so oil doesn't splatter. Transfer to paper towels. If necessary, add more oil to pan, and heat it before adding more latkes. Keep finished latkes warm on a baking sheet in a 250°F oven.
4.
Pat tops of latkes with paper towels before serving. Serve hot.