Almost any holiday table includes jellied meat - made from fish, meat, and offal. Fish lovers prefer to make aspic from it. However, most cooks spend the entire carcass on this dish, throwing out the head in the process. It turns out, of course, tasty, but not very economical. One of the most accessible fish is the silver carp. Its very name directly says which part of the body is the most weighty. And it’s a pity and irrational to throw it away. You can make it much more interesting: fry or bake the carcass itself, plus prepare aspic from the head of a silver carp. Believe me, it will turn out no less tasty and rich.
Secrets of success
In fact, it is traditionally believed that broth for jellied fish should be cloudy and opaque. However, if you like clear aspic, place a carrot or onion in the pan during boiling. Moreover, they say that the best result is obtained when using baked vegetables.
The aspic from the head of silver carp is cooked only in an open pan - this way the broth will not be cloudy. The heat should be reduced as much as possible so that the contents of the pan only bubble slightly.
Silver carp aspic: recipe without gelatin
To begin with, we offer you the simplest recipe for preparing this dish. In it, the gelling function is performed by a large number of bones in the head of the fish, so the dish is made without gelatin.
This is especially valuable for those who are fasting or simply do not like additional ingredients.
1. Having bought a large silver carp, we wash it and immediately separate the head - it will be enough for us not only to prepare the broth, but also to cut the meat into it.
Important! The main thing to remember when cutting fish is the need to completely remove the gills. Even the smallest piece can make the broth bitter and darken its color.
2. To make the head cook faster, you can divide it into several large parts. Again, rinse everything well in cold running water, put it in a saucepan and fill it with filtered water. You need enough of it to cover the fish - no more.
We monitor the amount of water in the pan: if you overfill it, you will have to wait a long time for the liquid to evaporate, and then the broth may not harden properly.
3. Now wash and peel the onion and carrots. If the vegetables are large enough, one piece of each will be enough. Without cutting, add the whole onion to the fish, and cut the carrot lengthwise.
4. We put everything on the stove and, as soon as we see that the broth is close to boiling, we begin to remove the foam. We do this until there is none left. This is necessary to ensure that the liquid remains clear.
5. After the fish boils, turn the heat to very low, add 5-6 black peppercorns and a couple of bay leaves. Leave the lid ajar. We hold the head of the silver carp like this for at least an hour and a half.
6. After time has passed, remove the pan from the heat, let the broth cool without a lid, and then strain it.
7. Select all the meat from the fish and place it in the aspic tray.
Decorate with rings or stars of boiled carrots, lemon slices without skins and seeds, and fill with broth.
We put the tray in the refrigerator, and in a few hours our jellied silver carp head without gelatin will be ready!
Jellied meat without gelatin
When preparing aspic from silver carp heads, the first and main thing to do is to remove the gills from them. Otherwise, your dish will taste bitter and have a not very pleasant smell. Then the base of the jellied meat is washed again; For greater richness, it is better to cut the head lengthwise into two halves. They are placed in a pan and filled with water a centimeter above their heads. When the broth boils, remove the foam from it, add onions and carrots and add salt. After half an hour, the carrots are removed, and everything else remains to be cooked with the added bay leaves and peppercorns. How long this will take depends on the size of the fish. A signal that the aspic from the silver carp head is ready will be the slight separation of the meat from the bones. The fire is turned off, the broth cools, the heads are removed from it and disassembled. The skin can be removed and cut into small pieces. The meat is laid out on plates, poured with broth, and the finished dish is put in a cool place until it hardens.
Silver carp cutting
Let's start with the heads: we separate the head from the whole carcass and, together with the second one, send them to the wash. Wash thoroughly, cut out gills and eyes. It is due to these “lobose” heads that silver carp aspic is prepared without gelatin. We clean the carcass from scales and remove the entrails. Rinse thoroughly. For convenience, we arm ourselves with a hatchet and chop the heads into pieces. After this, there are two options: the whole carcass can be immediately cut into steaks, which will look beautiful in the finished aspic, or you can send the whole fish to boil and then disassemble it in boiled form. The decision depends only on your desire.
Place all the fish in a pan and fill with cold water. We also send peeled carrots and onions there. We add bay leaf and pepper, but we will add salt to the silver carp aspic later. Place the pan on low heat and wait for it to boil. This process is not fast, so you can quite easily, while the aspic begins to bubble, look at the latest photos in the photo albums of the “Fishing Everyone!” website.
When foam appears on the surface of the broth, it must be removed with a spoon or slotted spoon. The foam has disappeared - it’s time to cover the aspic with a lid and leave to simmer over low heat for an hour and a half. Add salt little by little, adjusting the taste of the broth as you like.
Jellied with wine
Fish jellied recipes may vary. The aspic made from silver carp heads has a very interesting taste, during the preparation of which a shot of dry white wine is poured into the broth. This is done at the stage of placing the heads, carrots and onions in the water. After boiling, the broth is cooked for half an hour, then salted, seasoned and left on the fire for another quarter of an hour. While the aspic from the silver carp head is cooling, the heads are disassembled and laid out in bowls, and a teaspoon of gelatin, diluted in a stack of broth, is poured into the broth. The saucepan is slightly heated (stir the contents). Pour the strained fish broth into the bowls and put it in the refrigerator. When the aspic from the silver carp heads “sets” a little, you can add decorations to the vessels: egg rings, carrot circles, herbs, canned peas, etc.
How to cook silver carp soup with millet
Millet goes well with fish and vegetables, so fish soup with the addition of this grain will turn out tasty and truly satisfying.
Required:
- silver carp with head;
- 2 onions;
- 4 black peppercorns;
- 40 g millet;
- 350 g potatoes;
- fresh herbs to taste;
- 1 carrot + 1 parsley root;
- 1-2 bay leaves;
- 20 g butter.
Cooking time: 1 hour 15 minutes. A serving of fish soup per 100 g: 205 kcal.
How to cook:
- Clean the head of the silver carp from the gills. Place in a saucepan with water, add the whole onion, roots, peppercorns, and salt. To make the fish soup rich, the fish must be placed in cold water;
- Place the pan on the fire, after boiling, reduce it and cook for 20 minutes. In the process, remove foam from the surface;
- While the fish is cooking, prepare the necessary ingredients: chop the carrots into half rings, the potatoes into large cubes, and the onion into small cubes. Lightly sauté the carrots and onions in butter. Clean the millet from brown grains and debris. Then rinse the cereal several times in warm boiled water;
- Remove the cooked fish, cool and disassemble into portions;
- Pour millet into the broth, add stewed vegetables, potatoes, and cover with a lid. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. At the end add the fish pulp;
- Place the chopped greens in a nice bowl and set aside.
Jellied silver carp head in a slow cooker
To prepare it, the initial operations are usual: the gills are cleaned, the heads are washed, placed in a bowl and filled with water. The device is closed and the extinguishing mode is set for an hour. A signal will sound - carrots and onions are placed in the multicooker for another three-quarters of an hour in the same mode. When the time is up, the contents of the bowl are salted and flavored with laurel. After 10 minutes, the unit is turned off, the onions and bay leaves are thrown away, the carrots are cut into slices, the heads are disassembled, and the strained broth is combined with the prepared gelatin. The fish, laid out in containers, is filled with broth, decorated to the best of your imagination and hidden in the refrigerator. Are you ready for the holiday!
Making a jellied silver carp
After an hour and a half, remove the aspic from the heat, open the lid slightly and let the broth cool. Then take a colander and line it with gauze in two layers. Strain the finished broth through a colander. We take out the remaining parts of the fish and vegetables in it. We take the head apart and take out the meat. We put it in a container for aspic on the bottom. You can either place the meat from the carcass into containers as steaks, or remove it from the bones and also distribute it equally. Hard boil a couple of eggs and cut into slices. The easiest way to decorate the aspic is to alternate pieces of fish with slices of eggs.
You can add pieces of carrots, cut into strips, pucks or shapes. Another decorative detail is fresh parsley leaves. We put everything in containers and fill with clean, strained broth. Due to the large amount of adhesive substances, silver carp aspic without gelatin will harden in a matter of hours in the refrigerator.
Multicooker recipe
From a simple food set using a multicooker you can prepare a very rich soup with a bright aroma and excellent taste.
It will become even richer if you add a little garlic to the ingredients.
Ingredients:
- fish head;
- bulb;
- carrot;
- several potato tubers;
- a piece of butter;
- salt and spices.
To prepare a delicious fish soup, we follow this algorithm:
- The washed head without gills is placed in the multicooker bowl. It is boiled for about 15 minutes in the “Soup” or “Stew” mode.
- After the sound signal, the fish part is removed, and the broth is filtered and poured back into the bowl.
- The multicooker remains in the same mode, but the cooking duration is set on the timer to 30 minutes.
- Chopped carrots and onions are fried in a frying pan with butter.
- After the soup boils, potato cubes are placed in it.
- After half the designated time has passed, frying, spices and pieces of fillet obtained by disassembling the head are added.
- When the signal sounds, the soup simmers for another 5 minutes under the lid.
Ear from the head and tail of a silver carp
Silver carp fish is not an expensive species, but the price in no way affects its taste.
Both from steaks and from the head you can cook a very aromatic fish soup, which will be even richer if the broth is prepared with the addition of the tail.
Compound:
- head and tail of silver carp;
- 4 potatoes;
- 1 carrot;
- bulb;
- bay leaf, black and allspice peppers;
- greens and salt.
In the process of creating soup we follow this algorithm:
- Place parts of silver carp, spices and a cross-cut onion without husks into a 3-liter saucepan.
- The ingredients are filled with water.
- The broth is boiled for 15 minutes and filtered, fillet pieces are prepared from the head and tail.
- When the broth boils again, carrot and potato wedges are placed in it.
- After 20 minutes, the soup is salted and chopped with chopped herbs.
