I made gefilte fish!
Gerry went shopping for it and couldn’t find it anywhere. So I asked, “How do you make it?” and he told me what his parents used to do. Grind up fish and cook it.
“I can do that!” I thought, “So why not give it a try?”
A bit of time on the internet, a scanning of Mama Leah’s Jewish Kitchen and some help from Julia Child, I was good to go!
I think I’ve done okay. I fixed them sort of like quenelles using ground up cod, halibut and another white fish (catfish). Gerry said his dad used to use anything he caught in the Long Island Sound. I should have added some walleye.
I ground the fish and added eggs and cream to make a paste. I chilled the fish paste, brought some chicken stock to a simmer (the same stock I’d used for matzo balls earlier) and then I basically made fish dumplings. They certainly LOOKED right.
Now they’re finished, sitting in a casserole covered with carrots, celery and a little bit of the chicken stock. I was feeling not quite 100% about how long they’d cooked, so I’ve shoved them in the oven as a double check – I hope I didn’t ruin it... (are you afraid yet, London?)
As mentioned, I also made some matzo balls (to put into soup tomorrow, they’re chilling now) and there’s a noodle pudding in the oven right now. In a nod to Minnesota it’s being baked in a bundt pan.
Invert and dust with powdered sugar.
As predicted, after biking Gerry’s hurting. But he’s a stalwart fellow, and doesn’t compain (much.)
But he’s in pain, dang. Today he fiddled around in the basement and I think he got carried away with rearranging his tools.
He thinks the gefilte fish looks good… Nothing like a nice seder to ease the back.
As well as the fish, pudding and soup, we’re also making a turkey breast and asparagus, a spring salad, there’s tsimmis in the oven and of course we have our matzah. We have a little kosher wine, but I want to go out tomorrow and get some more.
We have some good friends coming over, we’re trying to dig up the haggada (heaven knows where they are…) and we’re settling down to have a nice one-Jew seder. We even know where the leaf for the table is (that’s half the battle – thank you St. Anthony!) Gerry’s never taught Max the four questions – tonight will be devoted to that.
Shed Raisin’
I got a bee in my bonnet about moving our rubbermaid shed from the center of the backyard where I’d put it last year over to the space between the house and the garage. It fits like a glove, it’s a perfect spot for it, but it was a couple hours of evil hard work. But ultimately VERY worth it as we now have a much more usable backyard.
I’d ordered some climbing vines and other stuff to plant. This weekend was supposed to be sunny, but now it seems that Saturday will be rain, with Sun on Sunday. I love to garden in the rain, so tomorrow I’ll try to get out in the morning and get some roots in the ground.
I have no reason for putting this photo of Keith up except that I SO dig the jacket, tie and shirt. Geeze, that man dresses well! I wonder what seder he’s going to…
Tomorrow I’ll spend the afternoon warming up food. Passover – the wonderful holiday when most of the food can be pre-cooked and carried to your mother in law’s house.
The perfect covered dish holiday! I’m surprised more Minnesotan’s don’t celebrate it!
Note: Please, no more comments about how our meal isn’t kosher for passover. We know it isn’t (although the powdered sugar was a joke about bundt cakes, and the catfish was a joke about, well, catfish.) The last thing we need is the kosher patrol turning up on our door. Elijah will be enough of a surprise.