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 a concept can be tracked way back into history, in truth as far as the early Egyptians, and potentially, even further back. Interesting though that maybe, generally, these early cook books were just basic pictorial instructions for preparing food.
In an interesting twist, the most ancient recipe discovered so far, according to experts in ancient history are a few ancient tablets in the Sumerian language 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 making people feel `wonderful`. Later on, in The time of the romans 25BC a roman called Apicius compiled a collection of documents which described recipes prepared by wealthy roman citizens. In his publication, Apicius recounts how the meals were split into starters, main course and desserts, a very modern way of dining. He also describes how the cooks of his times used a wide range of herbs, including some familiar names like thyme, fennel and asafoetida. Moving our culinary historical trip onwards, there were two interesting cookery books from the fourteenth century - a book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another called `Curye on Inglish`. Amusingly, they are unconnected to the spicy food that we all know today, but rather recipes for the types of food prepared by the chefs of the rich and wealthy people of that period. Later on, in the 15th century, knights returning from the crusades brought back many new foods, spices and herbs from middle-east cuisine, including spices like coriander, parsley, and basil. These new spices and herbs led to a torrent in cookery books, most of which still exist in private collections. When we get to the 20th century, cookery publications were increasing in popularity due to higher levels of literacy, people having increased leisure time and a general increase in wealth. |
We hope you enjoy this Ryba W Sosie Chrzanowym recipe.
