Cuisine Featured: Jewish
The Melting Pot section is where we have placed recipes for cuisines brought to America by the many immigrants to our shores. Over the years these cuisines have been Americanized, i.e., most viewers of our site have probably been exposed to many of these cuisines, either via the dining-out route or, perhaps, directly within our own families due to the multi-ethnic makeup therein. As an example of this multi-ethnicity within a single family, I can cite my own case-- My family consists of the following ethnicities: English, Irish, Scottish, German, Polish and Greek. Is it any wonder then that America is called the Melting Pot?
At the bottom of this page, you will have an opportunity to E-mail us and give us your thoughts on this page. We encourage this. After all, we will be tailoring this "Cooking Around the World" series according to the wishes of our viewers.
3 pounds fish trimmings: the heads, 1 pound each of skinned filleted
bones and tails of the pike, pike, whitefish and carp
whitefish and carp 2 T matzo meal
5 large onions (2½ pounds), 2 cut 1 egg, lightly beaten
into 1/8-inch-thick slices, and ¼ c cold water
3 quartered 8 medium-sized carrots, scraped: 1
4 T coarse (kosher) salt, or cut on the diagonal into about 12
substitute 4 tsp regular salt ¼-inch-thick ovals, 6 cut cross-
1 T white pepper wise into ½-inch-thick rounds, and
1 finely grated
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Centuries ago in Eastern Europe, gefilte fish was, as
the name implies, a stuffed fish. The meat was meticulously removed from a
whole fish, then chopped and seasoned, and stuffed back inside the skin to
be cooked. In some Jewish-American households traces of this practice still
remain: a strip of fish skin is wrapped around the oval of ground or chopped
fish before it is poached.Place the fish heads, bones and tails in a sieve or colander and wash them under cold running water. Then transfer them to a heavy 8- to 10-quart pot and scatter the onion slices, 2 T of the coarse salt (or 2 tsp of regular salt) and 2 tsp of the white pepper over them. Pour in just enough cold water to cover the fish trimmings and onions and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, put the filleted pike, whitefish abd carp and the quartered onions through the fine blade of a meat grinder twice. Combine the ground fish and onions in a deep mixing bowl.
To make the gefilte fish mixture by hand, chop the fish and onions fine and, with a pestle, or the back of a large wooden spoon, mash them into a fairly smooth paste.
Beat the fish and onions with a spoon until the mixture is well combined, then beat in the matzo meal, egg, the remaining 2 T of coarse salt (or 2 tsp of regular salt) and the remaining tsp of white pepper. Beat in the ¼ c of cold water a tablespoon at a time.
Divide the fish mixture into 12 equal parts and shape each into an oval cake about 4 inches long, 2 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Press an oval carrot slice flat on the top of each fish cake.
When the trimmings and onions have cooked their allotted time, scatter the carrot rounds into the pot. Arrange the fish cakes in one layer on top of the carrots; if they do not all fit comfortably, reserve some and cook the fish in two batches. Bring the liquid in the pot to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low, cover tightly and steam the fish cakes for 30 minutes, or until they are firm when prodded gently with a finger.
With a slotted spoon, arrange the fish cakes attractively on a large platter. Strain the remaining contents of the pot through a fine sieve set over a large shallow bowl. Stir the grated carrot into the strained stock.
Refrigerate the poached gefilte fish and strained cooking stock separately for at least 3 hours, until they are both thoroughly chilled and the stock is a firm jelly.
Just before serving, chop the jelly fine and mound it on the platter around the fish cakes. Serve with bottled white horseradish or beet horseradish sauce (see recipe below) as a first course or as a light luncheon dish. Makes about 12 oval cakes.
3 medium-sized beets (1½ pounds) 2 tsp coarse (kosher) salt, or
¼ pound fresh horseradish root substitute 1½ tsp regular salt
4 T red wine vinegar 1 tsp sugar
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With a small sharp knife cut the tops off the beets, leaving about 1 inch
of stem on each side. Scrub the beets under cold running water, then place
them in a 2- to 3-quart saucepan and add enough cold water to cover them by
2 inches. Bring the water to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to low,
cover the pan tightly and simmer until the beets show no resistance when
pierced with the point of a small, sharp knife. This may take anywhere from
30 minutes for young beets to as long as 2 hours for older ones. The beets
should be kept constantly covered with water; add additional boiling water
if necessary.Drain the beets in a colander and, when they are cool enough to handle, slip off the outer skins and, with a small, sharp knife, trim the tops and tails. With the fine side of a four-sided stand-up hand grater, grate the beets into a deep bowl.
With a small, sharp knife, trim off the stem and tail end of the horseradish root, then scrape it with the knife or a vegetable peeler with a rotating blade. Grate the horseradish as fine as possible.
Stir the grated horseradish into the beets, then add the red wine vinegar, coarse or regular salt and sugar. Taste for seasoning. Cover tightly and let the sauce stand at room temperature to develop flavor for at least 2 hours before serving. Makes about 1 1/3 c.
Tightly covered, it can be kept in the refrigerator for several weeks. Beet horseradish sauce is traditionally served with gefilte fish, and can also accompany boiled beef.
