Gefilte Fish

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1 whole carp, 10-12 lb

4lbs or 6-8 large onions

5 eggs

3 slices of white bread

10 ml water or milk

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons of salt

1/2 tablespoon of black pepper

When you choose a fish to stuff keep in mind the bigger the fish the easier to separate the skin from the meat it and clean it from bones. Clean the fish and remove the gills. Open the belly from end to end, make sure you don't spill the guts. Make a cut in the belly area under the skin (between the skin and the meat). Push your fingers into the cut you made under the skin and keep gently pushing to make the space between the skin and the meat. Make your way through from tail to head from both sides. Cut all meat out, but be careful not to cut the skin. Remove all bones. Cut all the meat you removed into small pieces to make sure all bones are removed. Put the meat through meat grinder twice and place into a large bowl.

The original grandma's Gefilte Fish recipe calls for 1 to 1 proportion of onion to fish meat. The base fish is usually carp, but if you add another type of fish to the stuffing it adds good flavor. The skin needs to be cut in strips about 3 inches wide, so you can wrap the stuffing with it. Don't discard large fish bones, they will be added to broth to add flavor.

For broth you will need a large pot filled with about 3-4 gallons of water. Add 5 bay leaves, 3 medium size sliced carrots, sliced 2 onions, sliced 2 medium size beats and large fish bones.

Bring to boil and cook for 1- to 1 1/2 hours on slow heat. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 black pepper and add stuffed fish into the pot. Let it cook for about half an hour or until the broth becomes golden.

Remove the fish from the pot and serve with Russian style spicy horseradish sauce. You can make fish aspic (kholodets) by storing the strained fish broth in fridge overnight.