On 11/5/2010 2:38 PM, James Silverton wrote:
> Janet wrote on Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:38:18 -0500:
>
>> On 11/5/2010 12:28 AM, Sqwertz wrote:
>>> ... in jelled broth.
>>>
>>> Yes, after decades of looking at these jars of Manischiewitz stuff
>>> that looks like fuzzy white turds and wondering where
>>> on my Bucket List they belong, their number finally came up: That
>>> number was # $.25. They were previously # $8.99, which would have
>>> taken a long time to get to.
>
>> The stuff in the jar doesn't taste like real, home made
>> gefilte fish, but I'm going to help you make it taste closer.
>
> Gefilte fish is rather similar to French Quenelles. These can served
> with lobster sauce and this vastly improves them even if they wouldn't
> be kosher :-) At one time such quenelles were so common in good French
> restaurants that there was a rumor that they had to be on the menu if
> the chef had any hope of getting a Michelin star.
>
>
Quenelles they are. The first step is to use the bones, heads and fins
from the fish along with lots of carrots and onions (some peole use
celery, but I don't) to make a rich fish broth. The mixture of ground
fish, ground onion, egg, salt and pepper and a tiny bit of matzo meal,
just enough to get the mixture to hold together is patted into elongated
balls with wet hands and dropped into the broth to kind of poach. They
cook for an hour to an hour and a half. You have to gently shake the pot
while cooking so they don't stick together.

The broth (strained after making the balls), because it has lots of
gelatin from the fish bone, will gel in the fridge.

The traditional Eastern European fish mixture is pike, whitefish, carp
and a little mullet or as my mother called it "buffel" but not being
able to get any of that stuff here in Mexico, Texas, I have been using
tilapia. Frankly if you use enough onions and carrots any mild fish will
work. I use the whole tilapia for the bones and heads to make the broth
and the fillets and what I glean from the whole ones when filleting them
for the fish balls.

I grind the fish in my Kitchen Aid. It has to be either ground in a meat
grinder or chopped with a mezzaluna-type chopper in a wooden bowl (how
they did it before meat grinders). Do not, I repeat, do not use the
food processor.

--
Janet Wilder
Way-the-heck-south Texas
Spelling doesn't count. Cooking does.