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- Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes
- From: maury@turing.eecs.uic.edu (Maurine Neiberg)
- Subject: My Grandmother's Gefilte Fish Recipe
- Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago
- Date: Wed, 9 Mar 1994 18:23:34 GMT
- Message-ID: <MAURY.94Mar9122335@turing.eecs.uic.edu>
-
-
- This is my mother's gefilte fish recipe, which was adapted from her
- mother's recipe, and is the best gefilte fish I've ever had in my
- life. And I've eaten a lot of gefilte fish in my life. She wrote it
- down for me a couple of years ago, but like most of her recipes, all
- measurements are approximate, and written instructions were
- supplimented with lots of hand motions. If you like sugar, put some in.
- As you can probably guess, this is an enormous amount of work,
- and usually takes all of the day before Seder.
- The two "secrets" are using salmon, and working lots of air into the
- fish mixture so that the final product is very light.
-
-
- Fish:
-
- 1 whole Buffalo (or other fatty fish)
- 1 whole Salmon
- 1 whole Walleye Pike
- (have the fish market fillet them and give you the bones and skin for
- broth. At this time of year the fish market will probably grind the
- fish for you too, which is an enormous time saver.)
-
- Broth:
-
- 4 onions cut in half
- 4-6 stalks of celery (including leafy parts)
- 2 whole carrots
- Fish bones and skin
-
- Put above ingredients in the largest pot you own and cover it with
- water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours. This should make a
- fairly rich stock.
-
- Fish Balls:
-
- 2 large onions - ground through a meat grinder
- Fish fillets ground through a meat grinder (seperately from the
- onions. Sometimes the fish market will do this for you. Food
- processors do not work well for this. The texture is wrong, too
- mushy.)
- 1 tsp sugar (optional)
- 1 tsp white pepper
- salt (1 tsp?)
- approximately 1/4 cup matzo meal
- 4 egg whites
- 2 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup extremely cold water (put in freezer, but make sure there's no ice
- in it.)
-
- In a wooden bowl, using a round bladed chopper chop ground fish and
- ground onions. Use a turning motion, working as much air in a
- possible. (This is where the visual aids come in handy.) Chop for
- about 10 minutes. Add matzo meal and spices and keep chopping using
- the same motions (about 5 more minutes). Beat egg whites until frothy
- (not stiff) and pour over the fish mixture. Beat egg yolks well, add
- the very cold water and pour over fish mixture. DO NOT MIX. Chop the
- mixture, adding more air, until eggs are well worked in.
-
- Strain fish broth and bring back to a gentle simmer. Make balls of
- the fish mixture (handle as little as possible) and drop gentley in
- broth. Peel and slice carrots into 1/4 inch rounds and add to broth.
- Partially cover and simmer for about 2 hours. Turn the balls
- occasionally if there are too many for them to turn on their own.
-
- When cooked, remove fish balls and place in a single layer in storage
- containers. Remove carrot slices from broth and put one carrot on
- each fish ball. Refrigerate.
-
- Bring fish broth to a boil and boil lightly for about 3 hours, or
- until reduced to 1/3 - 1/2 of its original volume. Pour reduces broth
- over fish balls and refrigerate until cold and broth has jelled.
- Serve cold with horse raddish.
-
- Serves about 20 people with leftovers.
- --
- Maurine Neiberg maury@turing.eecs.uic.edu
-
-
-