Do you take Sugar with your Fish?

It's been a very stressful day. On Tuesday night, my range oven overheated and the clock melted. I called in the engineer who informed me that the thermostat and fan had broken. OK, I have an all bells and whistles kitchen appliance insurance policy. Could it be fixed? Yes but the parts are out of stock and won't be in for 3 weeks. OK, I'll just use the oven without the timer then, a bit inconvenient but I'll manage. No, the oven is unsafe and is a fire risk, you mustn't use it at all. Back to the drawing board, I can't manage without an oven for 3 weeks, it's the Jewish Holidays for goodness sake! How can I braise a honey garlic brisket in the microwave? ( I didn't say that to him!)

My insurance policy will buy me a brand new like for like oven with 30% off the recommended retail price..let's go for that then. Oh and there's an additional charge £189 extra to install it and £14.95 to disconnect the old oven...and they can't guarantee that they'll take the old oven way and if the gas connection is not up to standard they won't install it and I'll have to book in a my own engineer to do the job. The final straw is that the new oven will be delivered in 5-7 days and they can't even guarantee a date! So I face the prospect of being lumbered with a dead oven over a 3 day Yom Tov! My stress levels are on the ceiling.  In the end I grit my teeth, go on -line with another company and order the oven for a bit more money but it will be delivered tomorrow morning, installed it and the old one will be taken away  The whole process has taken the whole afternoon and I had planned to make my honey cakes. It's a good job I fried my fish yesterday!

The house still smells of chopped and fried fish, even though I fried it in the deep fat fryer in the utility room and opened all the outside doors. Apparently you could smell it all the way down the road!

Going back to the title of the blog, I've not gone mad! The issue is whether one adds sugar to the raw fish mix before making chopped and fried or gefilte fish. This depends on where your ancestors came from. I am half Pollak, half Litvak. My mother's family hail from Galicia in Poland, hence they are Pollaks and Pollaks like their fish sweet, in fact they like everything sweet.. from holishkes to brisket. My grandmother and mother were wonderful cooks and I learned so much from them, including putting sugar in the fish. My mother in law is also a Pollak and her fish was sweet too..so no conflicts there. My fathers family were Litvaks, they originate from Lithuania and they do NOT put sugar in their fish, I don't know what my paternal grandmother's fish tasted like because she didn't make it and anyway she was a terrible cook. Pollaks do not like Litvak fish and vice versa! To me, fish without sugar is tasteless and without character, but it's all down to your roots and who taught you to cook!

Chopped and fried fish is basically a gefilte fish mix which is rolled into balls and fried instead of boiled. It is a dish which is unique to British Jews, you can't get it in Israel or the USA. I would be interested to know if it's made anywhere else in the Jewish world. It's origins are fascinating. Gefilte fish is essentially an Ashkenazi dish, it originated in Eastern Europe where carp fillets were chopped and boiled and eaten either stuffed back into the fish skin or boiled in balls in a broth of water, onion, sliced carrots, salt, pepper and sugar depending on whether you were a Pollak or a Litvak. The gefilte fish balls were eaten on Shabbat, a day when it is forbidden to pick out bones from fish. When our ancestors came to the UK, it was difficult to get carp, so they adapted the recipe to be made with sea fish, such as haddock, hake or cod. Enter the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardim,who didn't make gefilte fish for Shabbat but fried fish fillets in oil and ate them cold. Fish fried in animal fat such as butter is unpalatable when eaten cold, but fry it in olive oil or some kind of vegetable oil and it's a different story. Chopped and fried fish is a synthesis of the Ashkenazi and Sephardi versions and is absolutely delicious. It can be eaten hot or cold and is wonderful with chips, salad or in a sandwich made of sliced challah with a generous dollop of tomato ketchup!

So here is the recipe, taught to me by my late mother, the wonderful Esther Kay (may she rest in peace), and my amazing mother in law, Fay Phillips, both proud Pollaks.

I make a huge batch of it, about 5lb (2.5kg) worth, it's not worth making less than 3lb fish, because of the work involved. I use a deep fat fryer, although I did shallow fry for many years but gave up because of the many burns I sustained from splattering oil.

You need 3lb minced fish with onion (I use haddock but you can use cod or hake). Ask the fishmonger to mince the onion in with the fish. If you can get to a Jewish fishmonger, he'll know what to do. If not about 1/2 onion to every 1lb (half kilo) of fish.

Dump the fish into a large bowl. The next bit is not for the squeamish but you have to do this, if it disgusts you too much, buy ready made!
Into the bowl, shake in some salt, pepper and sugar. I can't give quantities, it all depends on your taste, keep adding as you go along until it's right. Either go in with your bare hand or put on a disposable latex glove and mix the fish to blend in the seasoning. TASTE! Now I know it sounds revolting but it's really not so bad and you only have to taste a bit. Keep adding salt, pepper and sugar till it tastes right. You have to trust your own taste and instinct.

Then add 1 beaten egg to every 1lb (1/2 kilo of fish). Mix again with your hands.
Then add equal amounts of medium ground Matza meal and ground almonds to the mix.. Do NOT listen to anyone who tells you that they only use Matza meal, you will get tasteless heavy cannonballs, not light delectable morsels.The ground almonds enhance the taste and the texture of the fish and are essential.  I have no idea how much I use, I just keep adding it till the mixture is bound enough to form the balls. Again, it's trial and error and instinct.

Leave the mix to stand and set while you heat up the oil, either in a shallow frying pan or a deep fat fryer. I usually set the temperature to about 190C and then turn it up or down depending on how fast the fish is frying.

Shape the fish into balls which just fill the palms of your hands cupped together and flatten slightly.
Lay on a platter until the oil is ready,

If you are shallow frying, put a tiny bit of fish in the heated oil and if it sizzles, it's ready. Add the balls to the pan, don't overcrowd it and fry each side until darkish golden brown. You don't want them pale, they look insipid.

If you are deep frying don't overcrowd the basket or they will stick together. I reckon it takes about 6-8 minutes for them to be cooked and golden brown but check after about  minutes. All appliances are different. Drain on kitchen paper resting on metal cake trivets. Try to resist eating them all in one go!

They freeze beautifully, I have been known to take frozen bags of fishballs on the plane to Israel with me! Enjoy and let me know how you got on! I will give one-to -one lessons if asked nicely!