Ingredients
FISH
2 carrots
2 celery stalks
1 parsley root
1 onion, quartered
5 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 tsp salt
6 cup water
2 lb fish fillets (carp, sole, pike or s, imilar fillets)
SAUCE
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3/4 cup horseradish, prepared, cream-style
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup sour cream
2 eggs, hard-cooked, peeled and sieve, d
Directions
Combine vegetables, dry seasonings and water in a saucepan or pot.
Bring to a boil; simmer 20 minutes, then strain.
Cook fish in the strained vegetable stock 6 to 10 minutes, or until
fish flakes easily. Remove fish from stock. Arrange on serving
platter and cover with plastic wrap. Chill. Strain fish stock and
reserve 3/4 cup for horseradish sauce; cool.
For horseradish sauce, melt the butter in a saucepan, then blend in
flour until smooth, making what the French would call a roux. Add the
cooked fish stock gradually, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until
the sauce boils and becomes thick and smooth.
Remove from heat and stir in horseradish, sugar, salt, sour cream and
eggs. Cool for 15 minutes. Pour the horseradish sauce over the
chilled fish and garnish with shredded lettuce.
NOTES:
* Fish in horseradish sauce -- This recipe is the first of the 12
dishes that make up the traditional Polish Christmas-eve meal, which
is eaten after sundown on Christmas eve. The Polish word for
Christmas eve is Wigilia (pronounced VI-gee-lee-ah). Its root is like
the English vigil: waiting for Christ to be born. At the end of the
Wigilia meal the family goes off to midnight mass at church.
There are usually 12 dishes in a Wigilia meal to symbolize the 12
apostles, though some families serve 13 because they include Christ
in their count. The meal starts when the first star can be seen; this
symbolizes the star of Bethlehem. Although The Wigilia is meatless
(Advent, the season of penance, continues until midnight), it is
still festive and delicious. The tradition of Wigilia, though
centuries old, is still current in Poland. There is no fixed set of
rules for what the 12 (or 13) dishes must be; the items in the meal
change somewhat according to location and availability of ingredients.
Nevertheless, all of the dishes are traditional, and in addition
there are many traditions for the serving of the meal. For example,
some people place straw under the tablecloth to symbolize the manger
in which Christ was born. Most families set an extra place, for the
stranger who might be passing by. This is my family's traditional
Wigilia meal:
: Fish in horseradish sauce
: Pike Polish style
: Pickled beets
: Pickled herring in sour cream
: Stewed sauerkraut with mushrooms
: Christmas eve kutia
: Almond soup
: Noodles with poppy seed and raisins
: Poppy-seed rolls
: Christmas bread
: Baked apples with red wine
: Marzipan
: 12-fruit compote
With this first recipe you will notice a similarity with my last
name. Now you know a word of Polish (namely chrzan = horseradish i.e.
hot stuff).
: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 1 hour.
: Precision: approximate measurement OK. Experiment.
: Original recipe passed down through the generations and translated
from Polish into English (with a few mods) by Edward Chrzanowski
: MFCF, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
: echrzanowski@watmath.waterloo.edu or
{ihnp4,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!echrzanowski
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 6 servings
Ryba W Sosie Chrzanowym Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Polish
The History of Recipes
Written cooking instructions as an idea can be traced far back into antiquity, in fact as far back as the Egypt of the Pharoahs, and possibly even further. However, sadly, these ancient records were just primitive pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for meal preparation.
In an interesting twist, the most ancient recipe discovered, according to historians is a series of stone tablets in Sumerian which describe the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made anyone who drank it feel `wonderful`. As we move into The time of the roman empire around 25BC a roman called Apicius wrote some documents showing how to cook the recipes cooked by his fellow Romans. In his publication, Apicius tells us how the meals were divided into appetizers, main course and dessert, something we still use today. Aspicius also tells us how the Roman cooks were skilled in the use of a good variety of herbs and spices, including many that are still in use today for example basil, fennel and asafoetida. Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, we find some interesting books published in the 1300s : one book called `Forme of Cury`, and another named `Curye on Inglish`. Surprisingly, these two books are not about the indian food that is familiar to us all today, but instead descriptions of the types of food cooked for the rich and powerful of the time. In the 15th century, people returning from the crusades brought back a variety of foods and spices from the holy land, including spices such as parsley, basil and rosemary. These new foods and spices led to a torrent in publications on food, many of which are kept safe in academic collections. When we get to the 1900s, cook books are greatly in demand as a result of better eduction, increased leisure time and having more money. The arrival of TV gave us TV chefs and the demand for the spin-off recipe books. Which pretty much brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, permitting us all to access massive numbers of recipes such as those found on our web site. |
We hope you enjoy this Ryba W Sosie Chrzanowym recipe.
