Food Section

I have cooked Carp before as Christmas Eve dinner and have been able to buy it quite fresh in Leeds market. This year, however, the Christmas Carp was bought in Prague only a matter of metres from our flat. The popularity of Carp as THE Christmas dinner, whilst in decline, is still strong enough for every street corner in the centre of town to have fish sellers with tanks full of fish. Select the fish you want and then either put it in a bag, take it home and keep it in your bath until required, or ask for it to be killed and gutted. Freshness is all important, we saved half of our fish in the fridge for the following day and noticed a marked decline in the flavour.
The traditional meal is fish soup followed by fried carp and a rich potato salad.

FISH SOUP
Fish soup is made from the head, any spare meat, the roes and selected innards. The revelation here is how creamy and rich are the roes of a hen carp when they are this fresh.
Sauté fish roes in butter with finely chopped root vegetables. I used mainly celeriac, onion with a little carrot and garlic.
Cook fish head with spare meat with an onion and peppercorns and a bay leaf. Strain and reserve any decent pieces of fish.
Reserve a little of the stock and mix to a paste with 2 tablespoons of flour and a little nutmeg (Carrs sauce flour is excellent for this.) Combine, adjust seasoning and gently simmer.
Serve with plenty of fresh parsley.

POTATO SALAD
Some very depressing looking tins of instant potato salad mix - just add cooked potato, seem to be quite popular, judging by their availability in the shops.
This is my version
1 kg potatoes
3 carrots
Small packet frozen peas
Small Spanish onion or preferably a shallot
Apple
3 tbs. capers
3 dill pickles
plenty of fresh parsley
3 hard boiled eggs
1 cup mayonnaise
Lemon Wedges
We were able to get some excellent salad potatoes although any waxy potatoes should do. Lightly boil potatoes then peel and cut into small cubes, sprinkle with a little wine vinegar. Make a sharp mayonnaise with mustard and slightly more wine vinegar than usual. Lightly cook the peas. Grate carrots and apples. Chop onion and dill pickles finely. Chop parsley. Chop eggs. Combine, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Decorate with the lemon wedges, some more slices of egg and dill pickle.

FRIED CARP
Use decent breadcrumbs!
Sprinkle carp steaks with lemon juice. Roll in flour. Dip in beaten eggs and roll in the breadcrumbs. Fry in a mixture of oil and butter. when nicely browned remove and finish for not more than 15 minutes in a moderate oven.






			I have cooked Carp before as Christmas Eve dinner and have been able to buy it quite fresh in Leeds market. This year, however, the Christmas Carp was bought in Prague only a matter of metres from our flat. The popularity of Carp as THE Christmas dinner, whilst in decline, is still strong enough for every street corner in the centre of town to have fish sellers with tanks full of fish. Select the fish you want and then either put it in a bag, take it home and keep it in your bath until required, or ask for it to be killed and gutted. Freshness is all important, we saved half of our fish in the fridge for the following day and noticed a marked decline in the flavour. The traditional meal is fish soup followed by fried carp and a rich potato salad. FISH SOUP Fish soup is made from the head, any spare meat, the roes and selected innards. The revelation here is how creamy and rich are the roes of a hen carp when they are this fresh. Sauté fish roes in butter with finely chopped root vegetables. I used mainly celeriac, onion with a little carrot and garlic. Cook fish head with spare meat with an onion and peppercorns and a bay leaf. Strain and reserve any decent pieces of fish. Reserve a little of the stock and mix to a paste with 2 tablespoons of flour and a little nutmeg (Carrs sauce flour is excellent for this.) Combine, adjust seasoning and gently simmer. Serve with plenty of fresh parsley. POTATO SALAD Some very depressing looking tins of instant potato salad mix - just add cooked potato, seem to be quite popular, judging by their availability in the shops. This is my version 1 kg potatoes 3 carrots Small packet frozen peas Small Spanish onion or preferably a shallot Apple 3 tbs. capers 3 dill pickles plenty of fresh parsley 3 hard boiled eggs 1 cup mayonnaise Lemon Wedges We were able to get some excellent salad potatoes although any waxy potatoes should do. Lightly boil potatoes then peel and cut into small cubes, sprinkle with a little wine vinegar. Make a sharp mayonnaise with mustard and slightly more wine vinegar than usual. Lightly cook the peas. Grate carrots and apples. Chop onion and dill pickles finely. Chop parsley. Chop eggs. Combine, adjust seasoning with salt and pepper. Decorate with the lemon wedges, some more slices of egg and dill pickle. FRIED CARP Use decent breadcrumbs! Sprinkle carp steaks with lemon juice. Roll in flour. Dip in beaten eggs and roll in the breadcrumbs. Fry in a mixture of oil and butter. when nicely browned remove and finish for not more than 15 minutes in a moderate oven.


		A FEW MORE CZECH RECIPES I am a bit reticent about using Czech diacritics on the web. So sorry about the spelling. POLEVKA OKURKOVA - MORAVSKA This is a very basic soup which made with decent ingredients belies its simplicity. Cube potatoes, boil with caraway, add 4 or 5 chopped dill pickles with some of the juice. Reserve some of the liquid and thicken with flour, add soured cream and very gently simmer. Serve with lots of fresh dill. BRAMBORAK Was once available at every roadside place but is now disappearing which is a pity as, at their best, they are quite delicious. Although beware of the horrors that are still about! Related to the Jewish Latke and German Kartoffelpuffer but given a unique Czech twist. Grate 500gms of potato and squeeze out the juice. Mix with 100gms of flour and a crushed garlic clove and a scant teaspoon of dried marjoram. Add roughly the same amount of milk as the squeezed out liquid. Should be a thick consistency. Put a dollop of the mix into a frying pan and smooth out into aprox. 5mm pancake . Fry each side on medium heat for about 3-4 minutes until golden and a crisp crust has formed. Very nice wrapped around meat or a decent sausage or just eaten on their own.