This is from Molly Goldberg’s cookbook. This is her friend Dora’s gefilte fish recipe (not Dora Levy Mossanen’s recipe). And what I discovered in publishing the Passover issue is that there are as many spellings of gefilte fish as there are of Al Quaeda.
From The Molly Goldberg Cookbook (which I bought from the amazing Rabelais Books in Maine for Laraine for Hanukah!) But we’ve updated it slightly. And in our opinion it uses a crazy amount of salt, which you might want to modify, as well. (AE)
Some people you can teach and some people you can’t. Dora makes gefilte fish like nobody. She used to come to my house to be with Sammy. They had a crunch on each other, and between the comings and the goings and the excuses for Dora to come down by us, I showed her how to make gefilte fish. Listen, one excuse is as good as another. So Dora learned how to make fish and with her own improvements on the recipe it’s out of this world. Sammy says she makes the best gefilte fish and I know that Love can be blind, but the appetite is a different story altogether, and My Sammy knows whereof without a doubt.
DORA’S GEFILTE FISH
Chopped fish balls
4 fish pound fillets (whitefish, pike or other fresh-water fish, 2 kinds if possible)
head and skins of fish
5 onions
4 teaspoons of salt
1 and ahalf tsp white pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
5 and a half cups of water
3 tbs matzoh meal or crumbled matzoh crackers
2 carrots sliced
Grind the fish and 1 onion in an old fashioned food chopped (or in a cuisinart).
Place in a wooden bowl, add 2 tsp salt three quarter tsp pepper. the sugar, eggs and a half cup of waer and the cracker meal. Chop (or mix) until fine in texture and well-blended.
Place the fish head and skin in a deep saucepan. Slice the remaining onions and place over them.
Add the carrots, remaining water and remaining salt and pepper. Bring to an active boil. Shape the chopped fish into 2-inch balls between wet hands. Carefully drop them into the saucepan.
Cover and cook over low heat for 1 and a half hours. Shake the saucepan frequently.
Remove the fish balls carefully. Strain the stock into a separate bowl and chill until jelled. Serve the cold fish and the jelly with horseradish.