My Mom's Legendary Galicianer (Sweet) Gefilte Fish

Sarah Chana's Note:

My mother's gefilte fish is the stuff of legends. We have tried to reproduce it for years, with little success. We have watched her make it, measured, copied, you name it. Still, it is just not the same as the fish my mom makes. Hers is so delicious, even to people who just despise gefilte fish, that friends and family members will travel across the continent to have some. A tough act to follow. That said, here is the best approximation of my mom's classic fish that I can come up with. At least for now. I hope your family loves it as much as we do.

• Total Time: 2 hrs 30 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 2 hrs 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 16

• 2 lbs white fish fillets , ground
• 3 large onions , ground into the fish
• 6 extra large eggs
• 2 ½ teaspoons salt (approx)
• ¾-1 cup sugar (no, this is not a typo)
• 5 dashes black pepper
• 2 -2 ½ cups matzo meal (more or less)

BROTH

• 2 small onions , sliced
• 2 carrots , sliced on a diagonal
• salt
• pepper
• sugar
• fish bones (optional)
• water

Directions:

1. Mix together fish, onions, eggs, salt, sugar, pepper until very thoroughly blended.
2. If you are my mother, or not as squeemish as her daughter, you taste it at this point (yes, raw) and adjust seasonings to taste. If you are me, you just pray that it is well-seasoned and move on.
3. Add matzo meal slowly, mixing very very well, until it is almost thick enough to shape into balls, but just a bit softer. (How's that for imprecise?).
4. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate for at least one hour, or even overnight.
5. At this point, you can shape the mixture into balls or loaves and freeze for future use, but no one ever does because deferring this gratification for that long is just impossible.
6. Make the broth: In a large soup pot, mix the broth ingredients.
7. Bring to a boil, then simmer for at least 30 minutes or so. It should be sort of golden in color. Taste to adjust seasoning. The broth should be sweet and a little salty.
8. Form the fish mixture into balls, cylinders, loaves -- whatever.
9. Add to broth, bring to a boil again, and then lower to a very slow boil for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
10. Cool. Eat. Enjoy.

Reviews

[Stevetaz]

Tastes just like the fish I ate when I was growing up.
This time the only difference is there is no Carp swimming in the bathtub.
Another thing was we forgot that the size of our hands have gotten bigger , Our pieces became softball sized but nobody complained.
Thanks for the recipe . :)

[ellie_g]

This recipe is enough to turn gefilte fish haters into its biggest fans. Absolutely delicious and never any leftovers. My husband requests this every Shabbos and it's always a hit with the guests as well. I use frozen gefilte loaf since white fish is otherwise unavailable here. I also use oat flour instead of matzah meal (just to account for wheat sensitivities). I leave everything else the same. I find gefilte fish goes further when made into balls and boiled, but when I'm pressed for time I just bake it in a loaf pan, adding a couple shredded carrots to the fish mixture since there's no broth. Not quite as good, but still everyone loves it. Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!!!

[Rossy]

This recipe is just fantastic. I have used it twice now for different friends, although I did fry the fish cakes in sunflower oil, they all thought it was fantastic. I did not have any matzo meal so I substituted maiz flour and it turned out great. Also one of my friends was on a strict no wheat diet so the maiz worked well. I served the fish cakes warm with sliced freshly cooked beetroot and homemade wholemeal bread. It went down a treat! Also I did pluck up courage and taste the mixture raw and was really surprised just how good it was and it certainly makes sense to do it so you can adjust the seasoning. Many thanks for the great and easy recipe.