Jellied fish is a festive, beautifully decorated dish. You can cook it from almost any breed, but it is especially tasty from sturgeon, for example, pike perch.
To prepare aspic from fish, you will need the following ingredients: 1200 g of pike perch, 100 g of carrots, 100 g of onions, 5 black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 chicken egg, 10 g gelatin, 10 g fresh parsley, 1/4 lemon.
Fresh pike perch is carefully cleaned to remove the gills, which, when cooked, can give an unpleasant bitter aftertaste. The head and tail of the fish are cut off. An incision is made along the ridge and the vertebral bone is pulled out. The ribs and small bones are taken out. The skin is removed from the fillet. The ridge, head and tail of the pike perch are transferred to a saucepan and poured with a liter of water.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and bring the broth to a boil. Peel carrots and onions, cut into several pieces and add to the broth. Together with them, black peppercorns, bay leaves and salt are sent to the pan. Reduce heat to low and leave the pan on the stove for 40 minutes. The broth should boil slowly.
You can make aspic with a rich fishy taste. To do this, take several species of fish and boil first a trifle. Then the broth is filtered and the larger fish is boiled in it. Fish fillets are boiled last.
The fish fillet is cut into pieces of approximately the same size. The ingredients are removed from the broth and the liquid is filtered through a fine sieve. The seasonings and onions can be thrown away and will no longer be needed. Carrots are useful for decorating fish dishes.
Pour the prepared fillet with broth and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. The finished fish is taken out and left to cool. Beat the chicken egg and pour it into the broth. As soon as the liquid boils, the broth is filtered through a sieve or cheesecloth folded in several layers. This method will help to lighten the broth and give it transparency.
The gelatin is soaked in a small amount of cold water. When the broth becomes warm, add gelatin to it and mix until completely dissolved. A little fish broth is poured into the bottom of the portion molds. When the broth hardens, lay out beautifully chopped boiled carrots, fresh parsley and thinly sliced lemon slices on it.
Put pieces of fish fillet on top and pour all the ingredients with broth. You can use pitted olives, pieces of pickled vegetables or fruits to decorate a dish. It is important to lay the ingredients in neat layers, creating a dish that is not only tasty, but also attractive in appearance. The molds are sent to the refrigerator until the jelly is completely solidified.
There are gelling fish species from which you can prepare aspic without using gelatin. A pike perch dish with instant gelatin will freeze in the refrigerator for about 30-40 minutes.
It is more convenient to use silicone molds, from which the filling can be easily removed when turning over. Rigid forms need to be immersed in hot water for a few seconds and only after that transfer the finished dish to a beautiful plate. Traditionally, aspic fish is served with hot spices such as mustard or horseradish.
