Fresh Stuffed Deep Water Fish En Glace
Nathan, Joan
FRESH STUFFED DEEP-WATER FISH EN GLACE JOAN NATHAN Is any food more Jewish than ge-filte fish? Not an important question, you thought. But wait until you hear what I have to tell you. Why...
...The following is the earliest gefilte fish recipe I could find in written form...
...To this day, North African Jewesses wear fish amulets around their necks...
...Allow to cool slightly in pot and carefully remove all the patties, placing them on a platter...
...When I asked Peshka for her recipe, two of her sisters-in-law were present...
...They also preferred the Russian custom of adding a little sugar...
...Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to simmer...
...Although the Talmud does not command the eating of fish on Friday, it is nevertheless strongly suggested...
...Remove scum and simmer...
...chop it and season it with pepper, salt, grated nutmeg, and a little of the rind of lemon chopped fine, parsley, and marjoram, a little soaked bread, with the water drained from it...
...Atputel was a cook to the Baroness Lionel de Rothschild to whom the book is dedicated...
...According to Rabbi Levi Horowitz, the Bostoner Rebbi, there may be an additional reason for eating gefilte fish...
...Peshka, Chuma, and Rushka disagreed, however, on seasonings...
...This stock should then jell when chilled...
...From earliest times, the Jews have eaten fish...
...Why continue a tradition about whose origins and reasons for being you are unaware...
...Roe is to me," they might have said...
...And, as fresh fish spoils quickly, and everybody in the unusually large families wanted to have at least a small taste for the Friday meal, gefilte fish—a fish stretcher—was concocted...
...FRESH STUFFED DEEP-WATER FISH EN GLACE JOAN NATHAN Is any food more Jewish than ge-filte fish...
...Each fish market will have its own suggestions for the most flavorful and most economical mix...
...2. In a wooden bowl, add to the ground-up fish all the ingredients listed under Fish, carefully chopping and blending...
...Look at Genesis...
...Mix well...
...They both took me aside and promised to show me the "real" way to make gefilte fish...
...Because of the association with fish of the Genesis exhortation to "be fruitful and multiply" and of the concept of future life through eating fish, fish came to symbolize both fertility and immortality...
...For an hors d'oeuvre serve the tiny fishballs with a toothpick on a piece of carrot, using horseradish as a dip...
...It's good for the sole...
...Garnish with parsley...
...The rising cost of fish does not deter her from making gefilte fish even though the ingredients now cost over $20 for 12 people...
...4. Remove the balls carefully and extricate the carrots...
...Needless to say, Lithuanians do not add sugar to their gefilte fish...
...But do not let that fact throw you off course...
...Because unless you know the answer you know not of your roots...
...Fish-eating thus symbolizes the hope of redemption of Israel...
...One 4-to 5-pound haddock (fillets, cut and ground) plus head, skin and bones—note: if only smaller fish are available you can add 1 or 2 more fillets...
...the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic," (Nu 11:5) bemoaned the Jews during their long exodus in the Sinai...
...But gefilte or gefullte fish is missing in my great grandmother's German Jewish cookbook...
...A virgin should be married on the fourth day of the week and have intercourse on the fifth day when the blessing of the fish is pronounced...
...Another mark of assimilation seems to be to change the name to "chilled fish balls...
...J. Atputel...
...While waiting for the pot to boil, begin preparing the fish...
...It is most likely that the Christians took over the Jewish significance of fish in their religion...
...The defeat of the Leviathan, the great monstrous fish mentioned in Job, is used as the symbol of glory to come in the Messianic Age, when good will triumph over evil...
...I have also added an even sweeter Austrian-Hungarian recipe of a friend's mother...
...Stir and mix it all well together, dish them up by first taking out the balls, then strain the sauce over them...
...It's the chrein (horseradish) that does that...
...4. Serve the chilled Gefilte Fish with the jellied fish stock, horseradish and of course the carrot...
...In Eastern Europe, unlike the Sephardic countries, fish was not plentiful...
...3. Dip hands in cold water and form balls iy2 inch in diameter (tiny if you want them for appetizers...
...In folk traditions a woman who ate a fish inside a fish would become pregnant...
...As a first course or summer luncheon dish serve with carrots, some fish stock, a sprig of parsley, horseradish and challah...
...Cut the carrots on a slant and add...
...Delle Sack's gefilte fishballs A marvelous hors d'oeuvre for the most elegant dinner party...
...Talmudic rabbis describe the joy of eating fish on the Sabbath...
...Sweet and sour carp was the family Friday night specialty...
...Cover with water about 2 inches over the bones (about 2 quarts...
...For Moroccans the seventh day of the wedding feast is "fish day" when the groom sends the bride a plate of fish which her mother throws at the groom's feet...
...Add the grated onion, egg, matzah meal, salt, pepper, sugar and l/2 CUP c°ld water...
...The bones can be discarded...
...At that time the Leviathan will be caught and the flesh given to the faithful...
...The women learned how to poach the fish filled with matzah meal in much the same way they made kneidlach...
...After he takes a bite of the fish the bride steps over a fish net and symbolically becomes pregnant...
...In Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, after the wedding ring ceremonies, relatives arrive carrying fish heads decorated with flowers and the bellies garnished with tinsel...
...True, gefilte fish is not mentioned in the Torah, the Talmud, or the Prophets—unless you count the whale, stuffed with Jonah...
...Not at all...
...The book is entitled the Easy and Economical Book of Jewish Cookery by Mrs...
...From earliest times the Sea of Galilee had fresh fish markets...
...3 or 4 tomatoes added to the balls is a great improvement and makes it a pretty dish...
...foods—kosher style dill pickles and gefilte fish (three different recipes, no less...
...Bring to a boil, add sugar, salt and pepper...
...In fact, even as late as the 1930 Manischewitz Cookbook, which included a recipe for a salmon loaf, there was not one recipe for gefilte fish...
...Stewed fishballs with egg sauce Take 2 pounds of cod and free it from all the bones...
...Mrs...
...Inevitably, a dispute arose...
...Pour the liquid stock through a strainer and chill...
...We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely...
...Gefilte fish's prosaic name is sometimes disguised as at one Jewish resort in Lakewood, New Jersey, which dubs it "fresh stuffed deep water fish 'en glace.' " That's gefilte fish, pretentious style...
...2. Meanwhile, grind the fillets and place in a bowl...
...In Greek, for example, Christ means Ichthus, or "fish...
...however, if it does not, simply add a package of unflavored gelatin...
...Then simmer for 1 hour...
...1. Place all the stock ingredients in a large kettle with a cover...
...Now I ask, why eat gefilte fish on Pesach or on Friday night or at any time, or why has it become the "specialite" of the Jewish people...
...3. Cook slowly for 2 hours...
...Before talking of stuffing (ge-filting...
...Makes 36 large patties...
...Claiborne knows the significance of this poached stuffed fish, so much heavier than his favorite feathery French quenelles...
...the fish, let's talk of fish and Jews...
...I have used their suggestions as variations on Peshka's basic recipe...
...A pile of carp, you may say...
...Codfish was substituted for the fresh water fish of Eastern Europe...
...With a dish of beets, large fish, and cloves of garlic...
...The way to the roots is through the stomach...
...From Talmudic times Orthodox Jews have been eating fish, meat and wine on Friday nights and at each of the three chief meals of the Sabbath...
...Wet hands and form fish into fat oval-shaped patties, carefully sliding each into the simmering stock...
...According to Professor Gershom Scholem, the renowned Jewish scholar, gefilte fish was a practical dish...
...Mix well together with an egg, make them into nice-sized balls the size of an apple...
...The fish broth could be used again for a milchig dish offish chowder during the week...
...At the time of Nehemiah sea fish was sold in Jerusalem near the Fish Gate...
...The bride then hops over each fish in the hope that she soon will become pregnant...
...Chuma insisted on more salt than is called for in Pesh-ka's recipe and Rushka explained that a little almond extract would do the trick...
...Lithuanians say sugar is added to freshen already unfresh fish...
...Since nearly all the Jews were extremely poor, they invented dishes for people of limited means...
...Slice in the stewpan a large onion, 3 tablespoonsful of salad oil, let it fry, add a teacupful of boiling water, let it boil up, put in the balls...
...It was with the influx of Eastern European Jewry to the United States and the advent of mass marketing of such food firms as Manischewitz that gefilte fish became so popular in this country...
...Makes about 20 fish balls 1 y2 inch in diameter...
...Drop the balls in simmering soup and bring to the boil again...
...Her next book, Jewish Festival Foodways, will be published by Schocken Books...
...The less carp and the more white fish, the more delicate the flavor...
...A c-d cult...
...Ne 13:16...
...They all agreed that the rule of thumb is two pounds of fat fish to one pound of thin...
...On Friday night the Jew is not supposed to "borer" or to pick meat from the bones of meat or fish while eating...
...The authoritative Craig Claiborne's New York Times Cookbook mentions but two Jewish Joan Nathan is the author of The Flavor of Jerusalem...
...The earliest I could locate was one in a private book collection in Brooklyn listing a recipe for stewed codfish balls in the 1874 English cookbook of the cook to the then Baroness Lionel de Rothschild...
...Peshka used her mother's handed-down-by-word-of-mouth recipe from Zamosch, Poland...
...But didn't...
...It is taken from Mrs...
...Several times God blesses man and fish, creating a mystical menage a trois...
...Pouring through over 500 books on fish in a collection donated to Harvard University in 1915,1 noticed not one recipe from throughout the world remotely resembling gefilte fish...
...So read on...
...During the week they ate potatoes...
...Zamosch gefilte fish Stock 4 stalks celery, cut in 4-inch slices 2 onions, quartered 6 carrots, sliced on the bias 8 cups water or to cover bones with one inch to spare Bones of fish (and heads, if desired) 1 tablespoon salt 72 tablespoon freshly ground pepper 1 tablespoon sugar Fish 3 pounds carp iy2 pounds white fish iy2 pounds yellow pike or bufFel 4 onions 2 tablespoons salt (or to taste) 4 eggs 1 teaspoon sugar '/2 to 1 cup matzah meal % cup water 1 teaspoon almond extract (optional) iy4 teaspoon black pepper Note: The ratio of fish can be adjusted according to taste and availability...
...fish was reserved for the Sabbath...
...Today most markets will grind the fish for you and give you the heads, bones and skins in a separate package...
...Today Manischewitz sells jelled and unjelled, sweet and unsweetened, fish balls, large balls— over a dozen different types of gefilte fish...
...Although today most people buy packaged gefilte fish, good cooks (like my mother-in-law Peshka) insist on preparing the homemade variety...
...After the fish has been removed, strain off the vegetables and loose fish...
...Wherewith does one show his delight therein...
...Since they lived near the North Sea they could only use pike, carp, buffel, or other inexpensive fresh water fish...
...In the 1901 Settlement Cook Book I did find a hot gefullte fish (German spelling) recipe...
...1 or 2 large onions Few sprigs parsley 2 quarts water 6 or 7 large carrots 4 tablespoons sugar 1 tablespoon salt Pepper to taste 1 small grated onion !egg 2 tablespoons matzah meal or cracker crumbs 1 teaspoon salt Freshly ground pepper to taste 1 tablespoon sugar y2 cup cold water 1. In a large soup pot put up the bones with the skin and head of the haddock...
...Gefilte fish eliminated this messy process...
...There dwelt men of Tyre also therein, which brought fish, and all manner of ware and sold on the Sabbath unto the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem...
...Since fresh fish for the Sabbath (they had no refrigeration in those days) was in such high demand, the Romans imposed a high tax for the right to fish in the lake...
...Cracow's (Poland) renowned Wierzynek Restaurant features "Carp Jewish style" on its elegant menu...
...Make it Lithuanian, Polish, Austrian-Hungarian, with salt or without, and don't worry about getting pregnant...
...J. Atputel's The Easy and Economical Book of Jewish Cookery, published in England in 1874...
...When done beat in a basin 3 eggs, strain the juice of 2 large lemons, with a little dried saffron and a little chopped parsley...
Vol. 3 • April 1978 • No. 5
